Abstract
The article critiques the 1967 essay "Le discours de l'histoire" ("The Discourse of History") by French literary theorist Roland Barthes, in which Barthes asserts that historical narrative does not differ significantly from the literary discourses of fiction, myth, and historical epic. Barthes' concept of "énonciation," or "the act of uttering," is discussed, and excerpts from classic works of history are presented to support the author's conclusion that Barthes is wrong on several counts: for example, historians do not, like fictional narrators, try to remove themselves from their own discourse.