@Pepijn Sweep,
the weird thing about the past is that once you get access to it ..... it is in the present. Therefore it isn't the past??
The info realism view is that the world is information, therefore past information can exist in the present. Its all information. Other world views tend to make the past present and future
intrinsic contexts to information and perception, therefore the past in the present (memory, light from stars, archaeology, writing ....) is not the thing in itself as it was. Though that doesn't stop us drawing useful interpretations.
Writing would appear to be the thing in itself. A present/past artefact (including this writing). But postmodernism points out that writing is never outside the context of its creation. I am already different to the start of this post. Moreover and crucially, reading is not under control of the writer....... and what use is writing without the context of the reader?