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 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.
Authors associated with historiographic metafiction
- Peter Ackroyd
- Isabel Allende
- Kate Atkinson
- Margaret Atwood
- Julian Barnes
- Jorge Luis Borges
- A. S. Byatt
- Angela Carter
- Robert Coover
- John Crowley
- Don DeLillo
- E. L. Doctorow
- Umberto Eco
- Timothy Findley
- John Fowles[2]
- Gabriel García Márquez
- William Golding
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- Charles R. Johnson
- Nam Le
- Mario Vargas Llosa
- Barry Lopez
- Wu Ming
- Lance Olsen
- Michael Ondaatje
- Ignacio Padilla
- Orhan Pamuk
- Thomas Pynchon
- Ishmael Reed
- Salman Rushdie
- Taleh Shahsuvarly
- Neal Stephenson
- Graham Swift
- D. M. Thomas
- Jorge Volpi
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Jeanette Winterson
References
- ^ Bolland, John (2002). Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide. London, UK: Continuum. p. 54. ISBN 0-8264-5243-4.
- ^ a b Hutcheon 5
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.