engleski

In obsidione Constantinopolitana … mortem oppetisse: Uses of the Past and Reconstruction of Social Knowledge. The Case of the Oršić Family

The 19th century Croatian historiography perceived certain John as the forefather of the family Oršić, one of the most distinguished Croatian noble families during the 18th century. As expected, John was no ordinary person, but rather one of the famous defenders of besieged Constantinople in 1453. He stood by emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos during the final charge against the Ottomans, and was even among the few at the emperor’s deathbed as Ottomans stormed the city, after which his wife and juvenile son miraculously escaped. Most of the modern-day historians take John and his life as a fabricated story, but was it the same for the 19th century historians? In the following, I will show the dynamic transformation of local social knowledge through the process of narrativisation of the past and – in given social and situational constructions – the benefit of such a transformation for rebranding of the normative and political community.

historiography, Oršić noble family, social knowledge, understanding of the past

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