Historical discourse once functioned to legitimate the State’s sovereignty

Evidence

LAST TIME, I TRIED to show you how the nobiliary reaction was bound up with, not exactly the invention of historical discourse, but rather the shattering of a preexisting historical discourse whose tunction had until then been to sing the praises of Rome, as Petrarch puts it.’ Until then, historical discourse had been inferior to the State’s discourse about itself; its function was to demonstrate the State’s right, to establish its sovereignty, to recount its uninterrupted genealogy, and to use heroes, exploits, and dynasties to illustrate the legitimacy of public right. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 4138

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the ‘praise of Rome’ model of historical discourse as State legitimation, which the nation-subject later displaces.