|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Jeanette Winterson`s Postmodern Historical Novels: Sexing the Cherry and The Passion as Historiografic Metafictions.
Araslanova, Anna ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Beran, Zdeněk (referee)
Nineteenth and early twentieth century theorists believed that history was based on actual facts traced by written evidence which justified those facts` apparent objectivity. Later theorists, under the influence of the poststructuralists` ideas of textuality of reality, doubted those concepts assuming that the historical data cannot be perceived objectively. This led to the further assumption that history is a construct, a discourse created by the historian who narrates it to the others. Consequently, in the Postmodern understanding, history is a subjective rather than an objective concept. Under those fairly new concepts the historical novels evolve into another form, a new kind of "fictional history". According to Linda Hutcheon, this form of Postmodern historical novel can be called historiographic metafiction. She uses that term to describe fiction which is both metafictional and historical: it is a specific form of metafiction that "draws attention to its status as an artefact" in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality. Those fictions "situate [themselves] within historical discourse" while still claiming to be fictitious. Thus, they problematize the very distinction between history and fiction by showing the parallels between writing literature and writing...
|
|
| |
|
|
Rose Tremain:Historical Novels
Koucká, Anna ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Clark, Colin Steele (referee)
Rose Tremain, a contemporary British author born in 1943, belongs among the most talented writers of her generation. Nonetheless, her works are not as successful as they would deserve. Two historical novels of hers - Music and Silence (1999) and especially Restoration (1989) - have brought her a remarkable popularity, which, however, did not last long. The purpose of this thesis is to make the reader better acquainted with these two texts and examine their literary influences. This thesis focuses mainly on 'historiographic metafiction', a term crucial to understanding Tremain's historical novels. Historiographic metafiction is a postmodern art form, related to the ideas of New Historicism questioning our notion of history. This school of literary theory shows history as a human construct by stressing the fictitiousness of any historical report. It points out that history - the multiple interpretations of past - may be no less fictitious than fiction itself. The decentralization and disorder which are characteristic for historiographic metafiction may be expressed by various literary methods. This thesis concentrates on four of them, typical for Tremain's postmodern historical novels: blending of history and the fantastic, changing discourses, specific narrative strategies and creative anachronisms....
|
|
| |
guest ::
