Doing History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Doing History - Essay Example It has reached the 20th century only in one interpretation, which was available for those who were interested in the â€Å"Arrest Memorable du parlement de Tolose† of Jean de Coras, the French jurist who became the participant in the trial of  Martin Guerre. Only after four centuries, the story has received a new, almost opposite, light considering its features from another angle. So our goal is to explore the different versions of the story of Martin Guerre realizing their meaning for the history. To begin with, let’s see who are the authors of new research works about the mentioned French peasant, and what their main ideas can be useful for. The thing is that the work itself "The Return of Martin Guerre" of   Natalie Zemon Davis, the history professor, is followed by critical article "The Refashioning of Martin Guerre" of Robert Finlay, the historian, whose perspectives of the same story contradict each other in many points. It must be mentioned that Davis has her main interests in the socio-cultural history with the emphasis on the occasions which are ignorable by historians. Naturally the case of Martin Guerre is of a great importance for researcher’s further progress in clarifying of little studied historical themes. So with the help of all appropriate scientific approaches she conducts the study, treating all sorts of evidence, such as village archives in question, judicial records, letters, and after reevaluation all of them she concludes that the case o f  imposture of the French peasant, as it is enlightened in the materials of the trial by Coras, probably may have another interpretation, that is, Bertrande de Rols, Martin Guerre’s wife, is the accomplice of Arnaud de Tilh, the impostor. One of the main reasons for such a consideration for Davis is the law estimation of women’s intelligence in Europe of that period of time. Furthermore,