Historiographic Metafiction Research Articles

Looking Back at Wasteland(s): A Historiographic Metafictional Reading of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

Some moments can never become memories; on the contrary, every breath taken, every word uttered, and every gesture performed are reminiscent of them. Much as the past is said to be past, it never dies. Memories of war belong to this group of the past never past, as in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). The novel centres on a traumatized survivor of the Dresden bombing of World War II with an untraditional, fragmented, surreal, and impressive narrative style and generic hybridity of science fiction and historiographic metafiction. Slaughterhouse-Five is an example of historiographic metafiction in that it presents the bombing as a historical fact combined with fictional characters and the author's self-references, experiences, and interpretation of the event. The novel is also a significant work with regard to trauma studies inasmuch as it portrays the effects of wars on human psychology, the traumatized protagonist of the novel, along with other characters, including the author himself. Vonnegut employs metafictional elements to display that people experiencing war trauma create figurative wastelands, their minds become confused and disorganized, and the line between reality and fiction blurs, and thereby, he challenges the conventional boundaries between fiction and history. In that regard, what follows is an attempt to demonstrate how wars turn landscapes and human beings into wastelands both literally and figuratively through not only the author’s but also the protagonist Billy Pilgrim’s experiences and, finally, how postmodernism could be a tool to demonstrate those traumas.

Convergence of Literature and History: 'The Bridge on the Drina' in the Context of Historiographic Metafiction

While the boundary between the disciplines of literature and history has come into question due to the problematization of their ontological natures, their textuality and similar narrative technics stand out as two main elements among the other intersections. As the criticisms of objectivity directed at history have echoed in literary studies, literary works where historical facts and fiction cluster have taken it one step further and rendered it possible to discuss the matter more broadly with cultural aspects. In The Bridge on the Drina, it is seen that the main arch of the narration proceeds along the historical realities, and yet Ivo Andrić’s sole aim is not to put forward a classic historical novel. In fact, rather than foregrounding the realities in question and erasing the fictive elements, he presents a kind of alternative history by palpably bringing together the historical and the fictional. Hence, the aim of this study is to argue that in The Bridge on the Drina, the boundary between history and literature gets blurred and their conventional characteristics get problematised. Presenting views from both historical and literary studies, the primary theoretical frame will be based on the notion of historiographic metafiction.

Off-Centring the Real in Postcolonial Fiction

Postcolonial literature primarily emerged as a response to colonial representations of reality, so it comes as no surprise that a persistent dialogue with the real is one of its defining features. Since its initial attempt to question colonial constructions of the real and engage in self-representation, postcolonial literature has found “new angles at which to enter reality”. By exploring some of the commonly employed modes and genres in both early and contemporary postcolonial fiction, ranging from realism, magic(al) realism, historiographic metafiction, and science fiction to the Gothic, each illustrated by representative authors and works, this article intends to give a brief overview of postcolonial approaches to reality.

Transforming Cultural Memory: <i>Inglorius Basterds</i> (2009)

Inglourious Basterds (2009) stands out as an example to the unusual storytelling techniques which have been used by Quentin Tarantino in recent years. It can be classified as Historiographic Metafiction with a postmodern perspective. The film's narrative bends the historical narratives and social traumas ingrained in cultural memories. This study has shown that Tarantino's films are not just a pastiche where the director collaged the concepts, events, and motifs selected from the cinematic history. Instead, Tarantino's films challenge audience's cultural memory, knowledge of history, and ways of seeing them. I think they are metafictions that first reveal the conventional methods of remembering before developing an alternative to these kinds of narratives. In this metafiction, memory is more than just a burden of the past, but rather a tool used to reshape the present.

Historiographic Fiction or a Documentary Genre?

In many novels of the 20th century, has been noticed a desire to rely on history in the form of meta-narratives, but at the same time to move away from history with the help of irony. This is mainly the nature of postmodernist works, which operate under the motto anything goes, everything is allowed. But in one of Kadare's works "Mornings in Rostand Coffee" can be noticed an attempt to build at the same time historiographical metafiction and a documentary novel about events that have left a mark on his memory. On one hand there are fragments of memories, reflections, findings, descriptions in the form of a macro text that connect the author's feelings, before and after the fall of communism in Albania. Different issues of the Albanian reality are thematised, where history and fiction are connected with each other. On the other hand, this work is also on the borders of a documentary novel, because the importance is on the true composition of the event and not the composition of the work, for being strongly connected from one chapter to the next. Our work is focused on trying to find connections between a historiographic fiction, documentary genre, autobiographic memory or how from one type it can be catapulted to another type easily. This is the technique of modernists and postmodernists who do not define the work in a single literary type. Through research, diffraction and analysis of the details of history and fiction, we intend to show that Kadare's work stands very well in an experimental novel, but also in a cycle of essays which connect the fate of the writer, his emotional feelings.
 
 Received: 19 February 2024 / Accepted: 15 March 2024 / Published: 23 March 2024

Negotiating the Postmodern Narrative Techniques in Life of Pi

The present paper attempts to analyse the complex and ambiguous phenomenon of the very movement of postmodernism in Yann Martel’s distinguished novel Life of Pi. Owing to the techniques and strategies employed in this novel, it can be called the true representative of postmodern fiction. As it breaks with realism and avoids rigid genre distinction, postmodernism deconstructs the wholeness and completeness associated with conventional storytelling ways. There is use of postmodern narrative as the novel is highly self-reflexive and Martel also experiments with intertextuality and historiographic metafiction. He weaves this novel withextraordinary and unusual events. By blending facts and fiction, he makes space for the readers for different interpretations. The contours of postmodern techniques such as fragmentation, metafiction, multiple points of view, advocacy of plurality of histories, and sheer rejection of grand narratives are used in this novel. Out here Martel delineates the chaotic condition of the postmodern world through Life of Pi.

From Ostalgie To Ostodium. The Anti-Communist Novel in Post-1989 East-Central Europe1

ABSTRACT This study seeks to theorize the post-communist anti-communist novel as a distinct and productive genre in East-Central European literatures, which we describe – in polemic with the better-known ostalgie – as a narrative of ostodium. We argue that anti-communist fiction became a cohesive genre in post-communism owing to its rigid view of the past, which was kept alive and significant, while simultaneously being antagonized, even after communism had collapsed. To that end, we explain how the anti-communist mindset assumed by intellectuals from the region during communism (which had then been branded as ‘anti-politicsʼ) maintained monopoly over post-communist cultural production, and merged with ascending post-communist neoliberalism that promoted an anti-statist public mythology. We further outline the shifting shapes in which the ideological bias of the post-communist anti-communist novel was conveyed, and draw distinctions from proximate genres, such as the political novel, le roman á la thèse and historiographic metafiction. One crucial argument in this respect regards the postmodern entanglements of the post-communist anti-communist novel: in maintaining an univocal rejection of the communist metanarrative, they took on a stronger political thèse than in Western postmodernism, but also enhanced postmodernism’s anti-realist drive by failing to provide an understanding of the post-communist present.

Historiographic Metafiction: A Study of Susan Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water

This article aims to show the application of historiographic metafiction in Susan Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water (2016), highlighting the embodiment of historiographic metafictional characteristics in rewriting Palestinian history, exactly the Nakba (1948). Since Linda Hutcheon calls for revision of the past in order to rewrite history, Abulhawa’s work has granted her a place among postmodern literary authors since she does so. Such an aesthetic and resisting act aims at acknowledging falsity and prejudice practiced by both ends responsible of historical documentation: the winner and the looser. This study argues that metafictional techniques allow the author to re-visit the Nakba (1948), re-present the events and eventually allow readers to re-pen history. Simultaneously, the novel’s historiographic metafictional characteristics will be underscored including challenging one historical truth, blending history and fiction, using self-reflexive narration, narrating through an openly controlling narrator, and importing real and famous historical and political personalities. The findings show that historiographic metafiction is applicable in Abulhawa’s novel. Interestingly, this paper demonstrates how the author enlarges her scope of writing, by adding postmodern dimension to the political and historical issues she depicts.

Gothic imagination: mapping the cultural memory and remembrance of the epidemic plague

Narratives about the epidemic plague create a sense of mystery and fear associated with the cultural landscape. Incorporating the backdrop of the plague, the first part of this research explores the portrayal of the epidemic as the setting against which a Priest engages in a ritualistic transgression to safeguard his soul. The second part focuses on the enigmatic events that unfold when the tomb of the priest inside the church is disturbed, giving rise to a series of mysterious occurrences. By employing Linda Hutcheon's historiographic metafiction, the study focuses on remembering the epidemic plague in the novel A Shadow on the Wall by Jonathan Aycliffe. It examines the interplay between memory and the construction of narrative. This research article delves into the fascinating realm of memory and its profound influence on human consciousness through the novel. It explores how memory can create an imaginary experience, allowing the protagonist to briefly revisit a past that haunts his present and might alter his future. Moreover, the article delves into the intricate operations of cultural collective memory associated with the church, shedding light on its ability to articulate the complex relationship between the past, present, and future within the human psyche. By investigating these themes, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate workings of memory and its role in shaping human consciousness

Postmodern History Writing—The Preservations and Alterations of History in The Public Burning

Robert Coover’s The Public Burning is a quintessential example of postmodern historiographic metafiction, presenting a bold reinterpretation of the history concerning the Rosenberg case. In this novel, Coover constructed an absurd world that blurs the lines between fictionality and reality, as well as history and text. He tried to tint a sense of historical reality in his fiction, which is a counterpart to the absurdity in real history, showcasing his reflections on social reality. Through this lens, Coover critiques the mechanisms of power and media that shape public perception. Drawing on New Historicism, which emphasizes the interplay between literature and history within broader cultural frameworks, this paper will analyze Coover’s innovative writing techniques in The Public Burning. It will explore his motivations and intentions behind the preservation and alteration of historical narratives, as well as the significance of historiographic metafiction in illuminating the complexities of historical representation and the ultimate impact on societal understanding.

Faktografija i fikcija - ogledavanja u romanu Vreme smrti Dobrice Ćosića

The subject of this paper is the analysis of Dobrica Ćosić's novel A Time of Death I-IV (1972-1979), primarily from the perspective of possible worlds theory. One of the most important Serbian novels about the First World War, which critics have frequently defined as an epic novel, was inspiring for our research for at least two reasons: the first lies in the fact that historiographic metafiction is still the most prominent literary current in Serbian novelistic production, and the second is that contemporary readers have returned to Ćosić through intensive film adaptations in the recent years. The analysis and survey of the relationship between the factographic and fictional is precisely what led to the illumination and better understanding of the contemporary readers' attitude towards the so-called NEO-historical novel, which, according to Tihomir Brajović, began with Dobrica Ćosić. An interpretation of the characters in terms of possible worlds theory is at the center of attention, particularly the function of extratextual narrative identities of military leaders, statesmen, politicians, and warriors (Nikola Pašić, Aleksandar Karađorđević, Radomir Putnik, Stepa Stepanović, Živojin Mišić, Petar Bojović, Apis, and Stanislav Vinaver, among others). The specific aim of this paper is to understand the creative process whereby the characters were transformed and shaped as they made the transition from fact to fiction and, in this context, to analyze the documentary and artistic function of different types of texts that are incorporated into the narrative fabric of the novel. In particular, the author's auto-poetic comments are deemed particularly relevant to unlocking the process of metamorphosis of the historical into the fictional. Two more questions are addressed as separate research challenges: (1) the importance of the specific way in which the author constructs the so-called historical characters to form national identity in the novel; and (2) the more general issue of historical truth, with particular regard to the nature of historiographic narrative. The methodological starting point for the interpretation of the characters is provided by the tenets of postclassical (cognitive) narratology, with priority given to Hilary Dannenberg's typology of transworld identities.

Literature and the Formation of Brazilian Portuguese: A Historiographic Metafiction of Linguistic Contacts

RESUMO Os estudos e as discussões sobre os contatos entre povos e línguas que se deram no Brasil têm sido frequentemente objeto de estudo da Linguística, principalmente da Sociolinguística de Contato, e da História. Entretanto, tomando os textos literários como possibilidade de entrever o passado, ainda que sob os olhares da ficção, a literatura tem muito a contribuir com a forma de se ver o passado, tendo em vista principalmente as metaficções historiográficas que se interessam por lacunas da Historiografia oficial, (re)apresentando acontecimentos e/ou fatos históricos, mas sob o olhar de personagens que foram marginalizados. Considerando isso, este artigo propõem uma análise do romance Um defeito de cor, da autora mineira Ana Maria Gonçalves (2021), a fim de ilustrar como a escrita literária pode contribuir para o entendimento das formas de interações que moldaram a sociedade brasileira, dando origem ao “Brasil” e, especialmente, ao “português brasileiro”.

A literatura e a formação do português brasileiro: uma metaficção historiográfica dos contatos linguísticos

ABSTRACT Studies and discussions about the contacts between peoples and languages in Brazil have often been the subject of study in linguistics, especially Contact sociolinguistics, and History. However, by taking literary texts as a way of glimpsing the past, albeit through the eyes of fiction, literature has a lot to contribute to how we see the past, especially because of historiographic metafiction that is interested in gaps in official historiography, (re)presenting historical events and/or facts, but through the eyes of characters who have been marginalized. Bearing this in mind, this article proposes an analysis of the novel Um defeito de cor, by the author from Minas Gerais, Ana Maria Gonçalves (2021), to illustrate how literary writing can contribute to understanding the forms of interaction that have shaped Brazilian society, giving rise to “Brazil” and, especially, to “Brazilian Portuguese.”

Pričaj mi / Tell Me

This paper aims to analyze the story of exile and postcolonialism pertaining to one of the characters in Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient – a Hungarian who goes by the name of Count Ladislaus de Almásy. Both Almásy’s storytelling and his book, Herodotus’ Histories, represent his attempts to demystify the past which he cannot, either ontologically or epistemologically speaking, grasp. The only way of “grasping” it is by means of storytelling. Accordingly, the novel is to be analyzed as belonging to the genre of historiographic metafiction, that is, within the context of its metanarrative/metafictional literary devices which serve as a means of constructing the past. Although his solace at first, storytelling eventually becomes a prison of Almásy’s own making as it leaves him both displaced and estranged. He, however, is also cut off from the rest of the novel’s world by being the only character to explicitly defy the boundaries of dominant cultures. As someone who belongs “nowhere”, Almásy is the true embodiment of a postcolonial discourse and a culturally heterogeneous identity.

Subverting Patriarchal Narratives: Exploring Bhyrappa's Depiction of Sita Through Historiographic Metafiction

The Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic, has been retold and rewritten in various narrative forms by numerous writers from different countries. It has a global appeal that has inspired authors worldwide to create unique Ramayanas. Among these recreations, Bhyrappa's Uttarakaanda stands out with its multiple story views. This research paper, titled “Subverting Patriarchal Narratives: Exploring Bhyrappa’s Depiction of Sita Through Historiographic Metafiction,” delves into the author's methods of retelling the age-old narrative. The present study utilizes the conceptual frameworks of postmodernism, with a particular emphasis on historiographic metafiction. By delving into the deconstruction of grand narratives and questioning traditional elements that impede women's rights, the article aims to shed light on important thematic concerns. Specifically, the primary focus of this research lies in the analysis of the author's work titled 'Sitayana,' where the narrative spotlight is shifted from Rama to Sita. Through a meticulous examination of the author's adept incorporation of alternative perspectives, the paper explores how this approach resonates with both Indian literature and its readership. Moreover, the article critically engages with the power dynamics that influenced Rama's actions and shaped his understanding of dharma.

Thomas Hettche Pfaueninsel (2014): powieść historyczna jako współczesna refleksja o Innym

The paper deals with Thomas Hettche’s novel Pfaueninsel, which is interpreted as a story about the Other. The category of otherness refers to the main character, Marie Strakon, a dwarf in the service of the King of Prussia in the 19th century, and to the place of action, Peacock Island near Berlin. Hettche’s historiographical metafiction is a fictional biography of a woman whose physical otherness places her in opposition to the orders established by humans: social, cultural, aesthetic, and historical. Peacock Island, in turn, transformed into an artificial paradise, is a heterotopic sphere of otherness contrasting with Berlin, an urban space of civilisation, progress, and the Industrial Revolution. The story of the Peacock Island biotope illustrates the emergence and evolution of ecological consciousness in the 19th century; it constitutes a motif of non-anthropocentric history being “the Other” of the ‘great’ history of humans. The paper shows how different dimensions of otherness are constructed in relation to the main protagonist and to the island space.

“Zindagi aik naraz matan”: A postmodern study

Shahida Dilawar's novel “Zindagi aik naraz Matan” was published in 2023 by Akas Publications Lahore. In the story of this novel, three main characters include Anum (Anu), Ali (narrator) and Sarwar Javed The story is structured through these three characters. The contemporary social situation and the life spent in offices is the prominent theme of this novel. The use of postmodern techniques of fiction is very common in the novel Zindagi aik naraz matan, Which makes this novel postmodern . In this novel, the post-modern technique of fiction is the use of irony, palyfullness, black humour, faction, Metafiction, Historiographic Metafiction, Pastiche, Intertextuality, Paranoia ،Temporal Distortion, Maximalism techniques. In this paper, by studying these postmodern techniques, this novel has been declared as postmodern

(Un)reliable Narrative in Ian McEwan’s Atonement

Atonement is a historiographic metafiction intertextual novel written by Ian McEwan in 2001. It is a three-part narrative of 77-year-old Briony Tallis, who is suffering from vascular dementia and recalling the life-changing events she experienced at age 13. Her self-confessional writing is her retreat and serves as narrative therapy, but it does not redeem her for the acts she has committed and lived with for almost six decades. The story of her life and those of the other characters may not be accurately narrated as events happened but as she had wanted them to. By analyzing the narrative, the researcher hopes to show that the main protagonist and narrator’s narrative and memory are not entirely reliable.

The Fifth Kingdom, Yuri Buida’s Historiographical Metafiction: Mystification of Historical Conceptualisation

This article considers the trends that determine the development of Russian historiographical metafiction at the turn of the twenty-first century, examining its inclusion in the context of modern Russian literature. Also, the author reveals the specifics of the conceptualisation of history in historiographical metafiction and its interaction with the tradition of Russian conceptualism and the Western European tradition (U. Eco and P. Ackroyd). The article studies Yu. Buida’s The Fifth Kingdom as the most representative text that reflects the features of this phenomenon. An analysis of the novel makes it possible to draw a conclusion about the peculiarities of the functioning of the third wave of Russian postmodernism and consider the nature of the deconstruction of the traditional concept of historical knowledge in Russian literature of the turn of the century. The palimpsest in the structure of The Fifth Kingdom acts as the chief method of deconstructing the historical narrative and modelling a new concept of historical knowledge as “feeling into history”. The author reveals the peculiarities of the functioning of this technique in comparison with the general picture of its use in the literature of the time. The author’s appeal to the detective genre strategy consistently profanes the historiosophical approach to constructing the narrative of history, thereby exposing the failure of one of the most popular variants of the national episteme. The analysis focuses on the nature of the deconstruction of the concept of the Troubles, the main vectors being the profanation of the mythologemes the Fifth Kingdom and the Pretender, which form the core of the ideologeme of the Troubles, as well as the consistent textualisation of the historical narrative, exposing its “corporeal’ nature. The conclusion is made about Yu. Buida’s extensive use of the plot schemes of Western European historiographical prose and the simultaneous development of the traditions of Russian conceptualism. The first aspect is represented by the interaction of historical and detective genre strategies and the assimilation of the historical palimpsest model, which is relevant to P. Ackroyd’s work. In addition, the golemic plot also becomes one of the representations of P. Ackroyd’s “trace”. At the same time, the nature of the deconstruction of the concept of the Time of Troubles is built in the tradition of Russian conceptualism and – already – Socialist Art. At the same time, Yu. Buida avoids the predominant profaning of the system of ideological myths, emphasising them as the key markers of the national episteme of history.

Narrativised Historicity in Arif Anwar’s <i>The Storm</i>

With five different plotlines over a prolonged course of sixty years in British Bengal and East Pakistan, Canadian-Bangladeshi writer Arif Anwar’s debut novel The Storm (2018) captures historical ethos through a series of micronarratives. An occupied Burma during WWII, a 1965 pre-Partition Calcutta, and a devastated Bhola after the 1970 cyclone — all these feature in this historiographic metafiction. Each character contributes as an independent narrator for the greater geopolitical mise-en-scènes of their times, rediscovering a forgotten past. This paper aims to identify the narrativised version of historicity that Anwar considers “authentic” in his novel. The findings propose a reciprocal commitment between narration and history on the basis of lived experiences or memories, phenomenological recurrences, and intersubjective surroundings.