TEXTUALITY AND IDEOLOGY IN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY: A CRITICAL STUDY OF HAYDEN WHITE’S SEMIOLOGICAL APPROACH IN “THE CONTEXT IN THE TEXT”

Abstract

This study explores Hayden White’s seminal essay, “The Context in the Text: Method and Ideology in Intellectual History”, and critically evaluates its methodological propositions within contemporary intellectual historiography. The aim is to understand how White reorients historical interpretation through a semiological framework. Using theoretical and empirical tools, this research unpacks the implications of White’s thought for historical writing and intellectual inquiry. Grounded in post-structuralist and critical theory, this work draws particularly from the works of Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Paul Ricoeur, Linda Hutcheon, as well as Frank Ankersmit and Dominick LaCapra, who both engaged with and challenged White’s narrative theory of history. Key findings demonstrate White’s enduring relevance in historiographical debates. The research pivots around six core points: the shift from empiricism to semiotics in historical method, the role of language and narrative in historical discourse, ideology as an inherent component of intellectual history, the tension between objectivity and rhetorical construction, White’s reinterpretation of historical evidence as textual production, and recent scholarly debates on White’s legacy in post-truth and digital historiography. White's proposition challenges traditional empiricist assumptions and instead situates historical interpretation within the frameworks of semiology and literary analysis. By treating texts as self-contextualizing systems, White invites a deeper understanding of history as a rhetorical and ideological construction. The paper further illustrates how White’s propositions can be applied to text,literature inclusive. By so doing, the paper enriches scholarship.