Carlo Ginzburg's 'Le Fil et les traces' reissued, exploring history and fiction

Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg's essay collection 'Le Fil et les traces. Vrai faux fictif' is reissued in paperback by Éditions Verdier. The book continues his reflections on history, distancing from both postmodernism and positivism. Ginzburg argues that while historical narrative resembles fiction, historians must distinguish themselves from poets by adhering to proof and avoiding invention. He explores cognitive functions of poetic devices like Brechtian estrangement and montage. The volume includes studies on Montaigne, Voltaire, Stendhal, Flaubert, Erich Auerbach, Siegfried Kracauer, and the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. Ginzburg discusses his method of 'micro-history' and the 'evidential paradigm' inspired by Freud and Sherlock Holmes. In an interview, he states that writing means erasing and condensing, aiming to be reread rather than read. He engages with Aby Warburg's concept of Pathosformeln and critiques counterfactual history, favoring comparative history as suggested by Marc Bloch. The book also addresses the relationship between history and art, inviting artists to reconsider their methods of extracting from reality.