Literature, politics and history a comment on E. P. Thompson's work

The aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which the British Marxist historian E. P. Thompson approaches literature in his historiographic work. This implies reflecting on how the author thinks about the relationship between history as a discipline and literature. As expected, although Thompson does not explicitly mention it, his link to the materialist and dialectical tradition of art and literature studies is clear. Therefore, "form" and "content" compose a unitary relationship of mutual interdetermination and cannot in any way be understood separately. The study also identifies Thompson's potential interlocutors and his sources of inspiration, in the sometimes unpeaceful relationship between the two areas. Finally, the study emphasizes how literature is perceived as a unique way of getting to know the world.