Research, biographical choice and the writing of history: biographying the duke of Caxias

Abstract

In this article, I intend to work with the concept of experience and its links with the production of knowledge in history, based on a reflection on the course, the choices and the methodological interventions I had to make while writing a biographical thesis, and also on the experiences I have lived during my researches. Through a close dialogue with Reinhart Koselleck and an Italian historiographical tradition based on micro-history, I intend to reflect on two sets of issues that shaped the research. The first is the political and historical importance of the memory in which I intended to interfere with: the memory of the Duke of Caxias. The other is more theoretical, about writing a thesis in history based on the uniqueness of a character’s life.