History as Discourse in Historiographic Metafictional Novels

Document Type : Original Research

Author
Masoud Farahmandfar
Allameh Tabataba'i University
Abstract
To challenge the authority of Grand Narratives is a dominant feature of postmodernism and, naturally, postmodern writing. Amongst these grand narratives is History. Historiographic metafictional novels – as postmodern works of fiction – challenge the objectivity of History and reinterpret (or, better said, demystify) the historical record. The writers of these novels seek to show the multiplicity and textuality of history. Therefore, history in these works of fiction is a discursive construct and has an intertextual nature; and as a discourse it is constructed in and through language and is thus open to rewriting and recontextualization. The present paper examines two historiographic metafictional novels in both English and Persian literatures, namely, Graham Swift's Waterland (1983) and Hamidrezā Shāhābādi's Dilmāj (2006), in order to reveal the extent these novels have transformed the conventions of historical fiction.

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