The “corruption” in Medieval History writing: the challenges of a discursive sustaining effect

Abstract

This article traces some general lines for the place occupied by the idea of “corruption” in the writing of the Latin Middle Ages’ history during the last seventy years. The objective is to explain an epistemic asymmetry: how is it possible that “corruption” is rarely studied as a theme of the Latin medieval past and, at the same time, greatly impacts the production of meanings about that very past? The search for an answer was conducted as a discourse analysis study of the possible Paradigmatic Function of theories on corruption in the historiographical scope. Applying conceptual premises and methodological procedures stipulated by Michel Pêcheux and Thomas Kuhn on works of notorious historiographical impact, this article articulates the hypothesis that the idea of “corruption” has figured as a source of a continuous, but variable, Discursive Support Effect, which founds and delimits the elaboration of meaning in the writing of Latin medieval history.