Narrative and analytical interplay in history texts: recalibrating the historical recount genre

Abstract

Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) informed genre theory, this paper investigates the interplay between narrative and analytical representations of the past in texts used for history-educational purposes. In this paper, it is argued that the role of narrative merits further attention in history genre descriptions. Thirteen history texts, selected from a lower-secondary history-instructional unit about European colonization, are examined. The examination of stages, narrative elements, and the way historical significance is expressed in these texts arrives at a re-calibration of the historical recount genre suggesting four distinct historical recount types with different configurations of a narrative-analytical interplay. The findings have implications for our understanding of the role of narrative elements in history texts, and further for genre-based approaches to instruction that concern reading and writing history texts.