Abstract
Discusses the relationship between literary theory on the one hand and historical theory (or philosophy of history) on the other. Since the publication of Hayden White's seminal 'Metahistory' in 1973, an orientation on literary theory was recommended to historical theorists. It is true that this conception of the nature and the tasks of historical theory has generated a wholly new kind of history of historical writing. This has been a great gain scholars should never allow to be given up again. The orientation on literary theory has, however, not deepened insights into the relationship between the historical text and the past itself. A careful analysis of what the so-called linguistic turn should mean for historical theory can explain why it is both easy and dangerous to overstate the significance of literary theory for historical theory. The implication is that the old semantic and epistemological questions with regard to the nature of historical writing should be readdressed.