Abstract
English fiction, in the recent decades, has significantly manifested its deepest concern for postmodern transformation of history through subversion of the traditional historical narratives. The current research paper aims to highlight the postmodern transformation of history in the selected English novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti written by Muhammad Hanif. The selected novel as postmodern historiographic metafiction highlights that contemporary fiction manifests and retells the traditional history through memory, parody, self-reflexivity and intertextuality. The current research study generates a better understanding of the present interdisciplinary relation of fiction with that of other disciplines especially history. The postmodern theoretical concepts of Linda Hutcheon are incorporated in this current study. This research is qualitative and exploratory, while textual analysis has been used as a research method. This research ends with the findings and recommendations for further research.
Highlights
Postmodernism started a debate in literature in 1970’s and it emerged as an extension as well as a reaction against modernism
The current research paper aims to highlight the postmodern transformation of history in the selected English novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti written by Muhammad Hanif
On the basis of research objective, this study investigates the following question: 1) How does Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, as historiographic metafiction, transform the traditional history?
Summary
Postmodernism started a debate in literature in 1970’s and it emerged as an extension as well as a reaction against modernism. Postmodernism influenced every field of art ranging from music, philosophy, architecture, culture, language, history and literature, in this way it changed the existing trends Many theorists such as Nietzsche, Hegel, Jurgen Habermas, Foucault, Lyotard, Hutcheon and Derrida questioned the status of knowledge in relation to various disciplines including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, history, politics and psychology. In the year 2000, she became the third Canadian woman who was successfully elected as president of MLA (Modern Language Association) Her famous books include A Theory of Adaptation, A Poetics of Postmodernism, History, Theory, Fiction, Irony’s Edge, Narcissistic Narrative and A Theory of Parody. Themes of his novels revolve around social, political, religious, historical, and cultural issues of Pakistan His fiction is generally compared with that of Saadat Hasan Manto, Joseph Heller, and Salman Rushdie’s work. The Partition of Indo-Pak subcontinent is enthusiastically represented by the fiction writers from both the countries as compare to the traditional historians as Ayesha Jalal and Sugata Bose opine that, “The colossal human tragedy of the partition and its continuing aftermath has been better conveyed by the more sensitive creative writers and artists—for example in Saadat Hasan Manto’s short stories and Ritwik Ghatak’s films—than by historians” (2004, p. 164)
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