Historiographic metafiction
Historiographic metafiction is a term coined by Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon in the late 1980s. The term is used for works of fiction which combine the literary devices of metafiction with historical fiction. Works regarded as historiographic metafiction are also distinguished by frequent allusions to other artistic, historical and literary texts (i.e. intertextuality) in order to show the extent to which works of both literature and historiography are dependent on the history of discourse.[1]
The term is closely associated with works of postmodern literature, usually novels. According to Hutcheon, in "A Poetics of Postmodernism", works of historiographic metafiction are "those well-known and popular novels which are both intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages".[2] Works often described as examples of historiographical metafiction include: William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c.1608), John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime (1975), William Kennedy's Legs (1975), Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981), A. S. Byatt's Possession (1990), Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (1992), Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (1997) and many others. By seeking to represent both actual historical events from World War Two while, at the same time, problematizing the very notion of doing exactly that, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) features a metafictional, "Janus-headed" perspective.[3]
Authors associated with historiographic metafiction
- Peter Ackroyd
- Isabel Allende
- Kate Atkinson
- Margaret Atwood
- Michèle Audin
- Julian Barnes
- Jorge Luis Borges
- William S. Burroughs
- A. S. Byatt
- Angela Carter
- Robert Coover
- John Crowley
- Fernando del Paso
- Don DeLillo
- E. L. Doctorow
- Umberto Eco
- Timothy Findley
John Fowles[2]
- Gabriel García Márquez
- William Golding
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- Charles R. Johnson
- Christian Kracht
- Nam Le
- Mario Vargas Llosa
- Barry Lopez
- Wu Ming
- David Mitchell
- Lance Olsen
- Michael Ondaatje
- Ignacio Padilla
- Orhan Pamuk
- Elena Poniatowska
- Thomas Pynchon
- Ishmael Reed
- Salman Rushdie
- Jean Rhys
- Taleh Shahsuvarly
- Neal Stephenson
- Graham Swift
- D. M. Thomas
- Jorge Volpi
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Jeanette Winterson
- M.G.Vassanji
References
^ Bolland, John (2002). Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide. London, UK: Continuum. p. 54. ISBN 0-8264-5243-4..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ ab Hutcheon 5
^ Jensen, Mikkel (2016) "Janus-Headed Postmodernism: The Opening Lines of Slaughterhouse-Five" in The Explicator, 74:1, 8-11.
Works cited
"Historiographic Metafiction: 'The Pastime of Past time'" from Fu Jen Catholic University
- Hutcheon, Linda: Historiographic Metafiction. Parody and the Intertextuality of History
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New York: 1988.
- Kotte, Christina: Ethical Dimensions in British Historiographic Metafiction: Julian Barnes, Graham Swift, Penelope Lively. Trier: 2002, (Studies in English Literary and Cultural History, 2),
ISBN 3-88476-486-1.
