CHAPTER TWO
• HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION'
The relationship between literature and
is
an
ancient
continuous
one.
human
The
urge
practice.
relationship
between
Gossman(1990)
shows
to
An
record
constant
events
investigation
historiography
the
historiography
and
is
into
literature
cross-references
a
the
by
between
literary genres and history. The Greek and Roman writers who
wrote history were generally concerned with
technique and presentation of history.
Tacitus,
Polybius,
Plutarch and
writers of the times.
some
of
the
Historiography during the Renaissance
presentation rather than scientific
was considered
to be a part of
were
linguistic.
neoclassicism,
the
Quintillian, Cicero,
Lucian are
conformed to the ancient’s view of
largely
rhetoric -
however,
history as an art
inquiry.
Historiography
literature and
From
literature
the
began
with poetry and figurative writing.
of
its problems
final
phase
to
identified
be
of
With the Romantics,
literature began to be viewed as a mission and the poet as a
prophet.
concerning
229).
Literature became a self-validating vocation,
itself
Questions
more
of
with
poetics
epistemology
than
began
rhetoric(Gossman
to
be
raised
in
history, as it detached itself from rhetoric, and set up as
its
ideal
the
impartial
representation
Rhetoric began to be viewed as antithetical
47
of
the
real.
to “objectivity"
and to historical
separation of
truth.
history and
universities.
literature was formalized
close to the most
the nineteenth century
privileged mode of
repudiation
character
literature.
of
as
In
realism,
a
perception of
the
unified
time as
the
the
and
to bring it
knowledge - empirical
and the dominance of realism in
criticism of
by
Gossman draws a correspondence between
history's efforts in
science,
During the nineteenth century the
the practice
twentieth
rejection
unifying
"multiform"
century
of
subject
entity,
and
and
the
or
the
have raised doubts
regarding history as a “scientific“ activity.
Notions of
history as neutral
borderlines
between
the
and objective with definite
constituents
are
questioned.
epistemological divisions are now being challenged.
notion of reality as fixed and
The
The
history’s privilege over
representation of reality are being questioned.
There
is
no
representations
Historv(19811
consensus
of
yet
reality.
on
the
plurality
Tuchman’s
of
Practising
is a detailed examination of
the differences
between writing history and writing fiction.
The constraint
that
a
historian works
with
is
that
of
novelist’s advantage is invention(39).
evidence(30).
Tuchman’s attempt to
demarcate the borders between history and
complicated
the
by
two.
fiction’,
the ambiguities of
In a study of
Leo
Braudy(1970)
‘narrative
48
literature
the use of
explores
The
form
the
in
narrative
is
in
history and
interrelations
of
novels and narrative histories in the eighteenth century
particularly the works of David
Henry Fielding.
history
than
Braudy suggests
Hume
Fielding..."(5).
because
he
Hume,
that
Edward Gibbon and
"Gibbon wrote better
had
read
The similarities of
the
novels
of
their approach to the
problem of writing history suggests to Braudy the artificial
polarities that literary and historical
for
literature and history.
criticism have made
Fielding questions
historiography which he equates with
asserts the value of
public
history.
past
public history and
private history as a corrective
This
links
Fielding
to Rushdie of
to
the
twentieth century who believes that official history must be
constantly questioned.
Braudy perceives in Joseph Andrews.
Fielding’s criticism of a view of actuality built on factual
detail
alone.
Gibbon
intrinsic order,
too
recognized
that causal
that
facts have no
explanations are imposition of
a certain kind of relationship between facts and that
have many possible orders.
of
probabilities
certainty..."(221) .
and
literature
were written.
rather
“Historical
truth is a balance
than an attempt
to establish
Braudy’s study demonstrates how history
influenced
each other
Hume drew upon
in
terms of
literary methods
how
the
novels,
according
"false orders of
Fielding attempted
public
to
to
history".
present
49
Braudy,
the
they
to write a
coherent history which denies chance an operative
Fielding’s
facts
role.
attack
and
expose
Through
his
novels
variety of
the
world
rather than reduce it to any category.
historiographical
which
in
turn
origins of
in
historical
the only aspect of
used by history.
influence
Fielding’s narrative patterns
influenced Gibbon’s
Rhetoric was not
Braudy stresses the
History and
their
writings.
literature which was
literature exerted a mutual
narrative
processes
and
discursive
practices. The overlap of history and literature can be
evidenced in intellectual
history or the history of ideas.
John F. Tinkler(1987) demonstrates the use of "literary"
technique in Francis Bacon’s History of the Reign of King
Henry VII and suggests that historical
studies in rhetoric
would correspond to a history of ideas since rhetoric shaped
world views of humanists during the Renaissance. While White
emphasized modes of poetic discourse, Tinkler uses rhetoric
to understand the narrative process of writing history.
History was perceived to be history-as-event and considered
prior and superior to literature.
identifies
W.K. Wimsatt Jr.
four aspects of. the
role
of
(1970)
history
in
criticism: history as antecedent or cause of literature;
history as lexicography;
literature and
the history of
ideas, and; history as text of literary works. History thus
affects
not
evaluation of
only
the
writing of
literary works
but
literature
significantly
and
the
influences
literary history.
Since
the end of
the nineteenth century when
began to be projected as a science,
50
history
historians have sought
to downplay the role of the "literary
history of historiography.
The preoccupation with historiography in the twentieth
century has been referred to as the revival of narrative or
the 'return of literature’. Ferdinand de Saussure’s argument
that language constitutes reality, not merely reflecting or
expressing it,
destabilized simple equations between
language and reality.
function of
the
After Saussure,
"meaning became a
linguistic system"(David Harlan
1989).
Saussure shows that language does not merely reflect or
express;
emotion,
thought,
experience
and
the
observable
concrete world have to be ‘encoded’ in a linguistic system.
The relationship between the signifier
(the phonetic or
orthographic representation) and the signified (the concept
signified)
is given by convention and may change over a
period of time.
Meaning assigned to a linguistic sign
is
thus arbitrary. Just as the gap in history between "the past
as
it
was"
meaning
in
and
the evidence of
language
the
is assumed,
past
not
is
inherent
relationship between the word and its signified.
arbitrary
nature
of
signs
structuralists emphasized
signs.
The
late
1960s saw the
which by emphasizing
the
stable,
the
closed
was
permanent,
in
the
Though the
acknowledged
the
'system’
which
regulated
rise of
poststructuralism
the arbitrariness of signs dislodged
systems
of
signification
of
the
structuralists. Poststructuralism questioned the possibility
51
of
fixed
meanings
when
there were
signifiers and signified and
other
signifiers.
to imply the
meaning.
no
fixed
bonds
between
if meaning was relative
Derrida(1981)
used
the
term
"differance"
infinite deferment and absence of complete
The meaning of a sign
difference from other signs.
is made distinct
by
so
that
deferred.
is
being continually unfolded.
in
So meaning
'differance’
marks
its
These differences may not
immediately apparent
'a'
to
complete
be
understanding
the movement
of
this
is
The
unfolding.
This implies that the relationship between language and its
referent
is dynamic.
Meaning
posited
in
the
present
is
incomplete, subject to change when new differences appear.
Bruner(1991) dates 1981
as
the
year of the "paradigm
shift" when literary theorists and historiographers compared
notes on narrative and
the
year
essays
in
that
which W.J.T.
had
perhaps
Mitchell
appeared
entitled On Narrative.
1980
representation of
the
Since
year
appropriately 1980.
in
Among
edited
Critics 7
the essays
of
reality.
the
a
Kermode’s
collection
Inquiry
in
“paradigm
shift"
the essays which appeared
Narrative Sequence",
of
in
is
in
"The Value of
the Representation of Reality",
"Secrets and
was
1980,
first appeared
Critical Inquiry in 1980 were Hayden White’s
Narrativity in
1981
Paul
Frank
Ricoeur’s
"Narrative Time", Robert Scholes’s "Language, Narrative, and
Anti-Narrative”
Versions,
and
Barbara
Herrnstein
Narrative Theories".
52
The
Smith's
significance
"Narrative
of
these
essays
lies
in
their
insights
into the ways
by which
narrative constitutes and at the same time is constituted by
reality. White(1980) examines
history
proper
-
the
the annals,
three
the chronicle and
kinds
of
historical
representation identified in the “official wisdom of the
modern historiographical
perceived
their
to
be
representation".
“imperfect"
central
concern
histories
is
arriving at
by
chronology
organizing principle of discourse.
not
The first two are
any conclusion.
historians
which
since
lacks
an
They terminate abruptly,
The
third
category of
representation is more “proper” history because it organizes
real
events
to
give
it
a coherence and
a closure.
White
sees in the process by which history proper is written,
impulse
to moralize.
necessitates a
“Narrativization
process
of
of
selection and
real
the
events"
sequence
which
belies the discrete and discontinuous occurrence of events.
The coherence,
integrity and completion of narrative history
is given by a historian, not by actual events. White reveals
the
paradox
enjoins
the
of
historical
arrangement
organizing principle.
that
real”
that
representation.
of
events
around
"the
in their representation of reality.
the desired ending of
of
the
a
certain
History proper privileges narrativity
historians can no more equate
function
Narrativity
moralizing
story is form inseparable from moral
53
"the
White has argued
historical
principle.
true" with
He
narrative is a
finds
judgement.
that
the
Louis 0.
Mink(1981)
that
contests White’s
narrative
narrativization
impulse.
is
position on morality asserting
a
cognitive
is primary not derived
White(1981)
instrument,
from any moralizing
points out that Mink’s position is
akin to those who claim history is a science.
to convincingly close
modern
philosophers
historical
than
that
the debate when
of
history
knowledge belongs
of
and
reason.
to
have
the
Unlike
he
had
observes
that
to
that
realm of
pure
White seems
admit
understanding
sciences
constitutes and is constituted by narrative.
history
Taking the
example of the story of Cinderella, Smith(1980) demonstrates
how 345 'versions’ of the story are both retellings of other
narratives as well as accounts from a particular or partial
perspective(215).
The events of history are constantly
being told and retold,
different
people
Scholes(1980)
"affirm"
at
accepts
interpreted and re-interpreted by
different
that
times.
the writer
In
of
fiction
the prior existence of his events,
historian has to.
This acceptance
his
essay
does
not
implying that a
is contradictory.
He
makes the distinction on the basis of the mimetic intentions
of the two disciplines. But in his discussion on language he
does elaborate on the referential
function of
in literature and that used in history.
events
in
fiction
"have
though they are presented
applied
to
texts
termed
no
prior
language used
His statement
temporal
existence,
that
even
as if they did" may not hold when
by Hutcheon as
54
'historiographic
metafiction’.
historical
Scholes’ acceptance of the boundaries between
and
scepticism of
"narrative
literary writing
the
is
"deconstructive
structuration".
historical
writing and
complicated
by
their
enterprise"
The
of
to
writing
is
ordinary
his
extirpate
relationship
literary
use
probably part of
between
further
language.
Stanford’s words history is "single-layered"(1986
In
149).
It
does not use any kind of technical jargon like pure sciences
do.
Kermodef1980) demonstrates the conflict between the
“illusion
of
narrative sequence"
and
"secrets"
by
a
detailed examination of Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes.
By "secrets”
text;
Kermode means interpretations that underlie a
it may be with reference to
the story
other discourse. Ricoeur’s essay focuses on
He expounds different
to
locate
levels of
his discourse.
itself or any
narrative time.
temporality using
Ricoeur
does
not
the
plot
distinguish
the
plot of a literary work from that of history.
White’s
and
Ankersmit’s
plausible
alternative
approaches to be adopted for the study. White
analyses the
'narrative
"tropical"
method(1973)
logic’(1983)
main forms of historical
Burke’s
prove
consciousness in the nineteenth
century
using
Metonymy,
Synechdoche and Irony - as
linguistic prefiguration.
"master
tropes"
White uses a
55
- Metaphor,
the basic types of
linguistic model
to
classify
the
"deep
structural-
forms
of
the
historical
*
i magination“( 1 973 31 ).
historical
The historian approaches
field like the linguist does a new language.
historian’s conceptualization of his material
the kinds of
the
The
characterizes
relationships the objects within his material
have. Metaphor is representational, metonymy is reductionist,
synecdoche is
of
these
equations
dominant
century.
integrative and
trope
in
the
last decades of
and each
Irony was
the
the nineteenth
Against the ironic the other three appear “naive”
is a belief
in
three tropes are used when
language’s capacity
things in figurative terms,
to
there
grasp the nature of
in irony catachresis and aporia
the author’s disbelief in the truth of his or her own
statements.
use of
four
is negational
illumines discourse.
to White. While the first
signal
irony
The underlying scepticism and relativism in the
Irony appear
texts
in
to be
hand.
relevant
However
it
to
the analysis of
lacks
the
the
narratological
aspect by which the intersections between literature and
history
is
made
manifest
as
in
Hutcheon’s
historiographic
metafiction.
Rejecting
approaches
to
Lonicf1983)
historical
phenomenologistic
historiography,
uses narrativist
psychologistic
Ankersmit’s
Narrative
philosophy and
knowledge as an arrangement of what
'narrative substances’.
for
and
Ankersmit uses the term
historiographical
narrative
56
and
looks at
he
terms
'narratio’
'narrative
substance’(Ns) for a collection of statements that deal with
facts in a narration.
"thesis on
the past"
Narrative substances propose some
which
value of a narratio.
substance
lies
in
indicate the
The
its
historiographical
significance of
'historist’
narrative
implications.
While
historicism refers to speculative philosophies of history as
developed
for
instance by Hegel
or Marx,
indicate the ideas on the writing of history.
Ankersmit, 90% of all
'historism’
According to
living historians cannot write history
without being historists. Ankersmi t acknowledges problems in
differentiating between
novels.
serve
The use of
the narratio and
criterion
like
to conclusively distinguish
because interpretation
the historical
truth value does not
the
two kinds of writing
and "point of view"
are woven into
both the novel and historiography. The three fundamental
tenets of
his approach are
that
narratios
cannot
be
taken
for the past; that a narratio expresses an interpretation of
the
past
and
this
narrative
substance;
narratios
are
view’
and
similar
in
that
their
plots
the
embodied
definition
in
the
statements
and
of
a
'point
of
The continuum on which
range of narrative from the historical
to the narratio is flexible.
study cannot
is
metaphorical
from which they view reality.
Ankersmit
novel
interpretation
be considered as
Ankersmit’s framework proves
from positivistic models of
The four texts
historical
inadequate.
historical
novels,
in
this
and
thus
While they depart
analysis,
they
to account for the “use of history" in the new novel.
57
fail
White’s tropology and Ankersmit’s 'narrative logic’
attempt to decode the
'entextualization’ of reality and
discern the historical
interpretation woven within.
The
realization that narrative organization also means selection
of usable facts of history,
has put
the truth-claim of
history in doubt. The privileged position of the historical
novel
in literature because of
its
true
referentiality
is
questioned by re-thinking on the nature of historical truth.
Just as
twentieth century scepticism has
historical
deductions
are
conjectural
and
revealed
their
that
meanings
speculative, in literature it has questioned the privileging
of originality,
and genre.
of
the literary canon and
the purity of form
Ultimately it has shown that the categorization
knowledge and
narrative
has been a matter
of
cultural
perception. In this context 'historiographic metafiction’ is
a
site
on
which
two
problematized
categories
historiography and novels that use history - are situated.
Connectivity appears at
the
foreground
in current
theories on the relationship between literature and history.
Narrative
is the link between
the two disciplines and
its
common features challenge attempts at segregation of the
two.
Historiographic
metafiction
provides
framework for analysis of the four texts
an
appropriate
in this thesis as
it positions the relationship between literature and history
as symbiotic rather than conflictual.
58
In
the
context
'deconstruction’
graphy and
of
of
the
history’s
the so-called
late
twentieth
"objective"
historical
intense discursive activity.
truth,
novel
century
historio­
become
sites
of
White’s efforts to describe
the 'narrativization’ of real events in literary tropes,
Mink’s argument
individual
that narrativization
cognition
coherence of
historical
is not
and *Oakeshott’s
the product of
perception
that
the
the historian’s narrative alone defines
truth
are
prominent.
For
White(1980)
historiography is an "especially good ground on which to
consider the nature of narration and narrativity because
here human desire for
contest
with
the
the imaginary,
imperatives of
Ten years later,
the
the possible,
real,
must
the actual"(8).
Ankersmit finds that historiography "truly
is the postmodernist discipline par excellence",
in which we
are left with representations mirroring an ever absent past
reality(1990 294).
problematizing
defines
what
And
it
poetics
she
Hutcheon(1988)
of
calls
chose
is within
the
framework of
postmodernism
“historiographic
fiction
partly
that
the
Hutcheon
metafiction”.
because
of
the
preference in this epoch for the genre and partly because it
verbally
articulates
and
problematizes
the
assumptions
of
the
experience
of
our dominant culture(227).
The
authors
displacement
Rushdie,
of
these
books
share
from their country of origin - India.
the authors live in
59
Except
the United States of America;
Rushdie lives in England.
aware of
As writers all
the contradictions in their
four seem acutely
situation both as
writers and as persons who do not belong to any particular
identity-slot.
These
texts
draw
information
from
several
sources. They appear to adopt an across discourses approach
in which the crossing of borders is based on access and
projected in the positioning of narrative. The author’s
awareness makes the crossing of boundaries deliberate,
effected
by chance.
In
the context one finds
it
not
more
probable that the 'positioning’ of the texts that source
from literature and history may be based on their awareness
of the various discourses in literature and history.
That
historiographic metafiction is sought to be located in a
postmodernism
contingent.
that
The
apparently
four
writers
has
no
do
not
boundaries
claim
to
is
be
postmodernists but their writings closely correspond to
Hutcheon’s historiographic metafiction.
MC was first published in 1981.
of Saleem Sinai,
born at
the same
It is an autobiography
time
Independence from its British colonists.
and Saleem’s narration begin
that
Though
with his birth,
not arrive at the time of his birth until
One, after more than a hundred pages.
India won
the
book
Saleem does
the end of Book
He goes back in time
to the times of his grandfather Aadam Aziz, before coming to
his birth.
Then, he discloses that he is not the biological
t
grandson of Aadam Aziz.
He is the bastard son of an English
60
man and his Indian maid.
He was not born a Muslim and he
wasn’t Saleem Sinai.
He should have been Shiva, who was the
'real' Saleem Sinai.
Saleem narrates his past from memory
and
he
is
motivated
by
extraordinary story and
consciousness.
the
need
to
preserve
by the weight of
historical
The speed with which he recollects and
narrates his story
is governed
by his fear of
death which could cut his story short.
impending
For each year of his
life, Saleem has a chapter and a pickle jar.
sense of doom,
his
Inspite of his
in addition to thirty jars he has one empty
jar which stands for
the future that
is yet
to happen.
Saleem’s autobiography is the story of his life "handcuffed
to history", written and at the same time narrated to Padma,
Saleem’s sole audience,
critic and companion.
the role of a priest during Confession,
Saleem’s
tale of guilt
authority to pardon.
but
Padma plays
listening to
unlike a priest
she
has no
Saleem’s life is marked by its
intersections with events from national history.
He claims
responsibility for the occurrence of certain national
events
9
and marks certain other events for the drastic impact
had on his life.
MC may be seen as Saleem’s story and an
alternative history of India.
metafictional
they
Its self-ref1exivity and
aspects explicitly signals
the
text’s
participation in discourses on the lines drawn between
history and literature,
between fiction and non-fiction and
between different forms and genres of writing.
61
TGIN is autobiographical but it is more V.V.’s version
of the history of India than the story of his life.
It is
the story of a man who claims to have directed the course of
history in his lifetime.
At eighty-eight, Ved Vyas, V.V. in
short, dictates his memoirs to Ganapathi.
Tharoor uses the
frame of the Mahabharata to plot the story of V.V. and his
country,
India.
Just as Ved Vyas dictates the Mahabharata
to Ganesh in the Mahabharata. TGIN’s Ved Vyas dictates TGIN.
to Ganapathi
constantly
in TGIN.
reworked
The events of
the Mahabharata are
to accommodate modern
Indian
history.
In the Mahabharata Bhishma is a heroic figure who gives up
his rightful inheritance for his father’s happiness.
up the right
Giving
to rule may be seen as an act of supreme
sacrifice for a Kshatriya prince.
When Bhishma takes a vow
to lead a life of celibacy and to never stake a claim to the
throne of Hastinapur, he literally shakes the world with its
force.
Before he took the vow Bhishma was called Ganga
Datta.
In TGIN. Ganga Datta is referred to as Ganga D. and
Gangaji; Ganga travels in third-class train carriages, leads
a non-violent army of satyagrahis, abandons his robes for a
loincloth, has a balding pate and oval glasses and preaches
the importance of enemas.
with Gandhi ji,
the
These clues connect
'Father of
presented with the sense of
the Nation’.
Ganga D.
Ganga
reverence which
is not
is usually
evoked by the figures of Bhishma in the Mahabharata and
Gandhi
in Indian historiography.
Songs like the one below
demythify the halo of sainthood which has circled Gandhi.
62
‘Old Gangaji too
is a good Hindu
for to violate a cow
would negate his vow’".
(TGIN 26)
The jocularity sets the tone of irreverence that
pervades the book.
And in the process, TGIN provokes a re­
visioning of the Mahabharata and reverses the pre-dominantly
deferential approach to the events and personages of the
struggle for Independence.
occupy
The Mahabharata may be seen to
a space between myth and history.
The
text of this
epic has undergone many transformations; different versions
of its
prose.
stories exist and it has been rendered
The original
which may have been
in
in verse and
Sanskrit
has
been translated into different languages and as the world’s
longest epic poem it has long been the cynosure of various
discourses.
But just as secular interpretations of the
Bible has met with concerted resistance, attempts to
scrutinize
opposition.
the Mahabharata outside
The hermeneutical
has the additional
Mahabharata and
the
being part of colonial
The use and
Indian
faced
tradition of the Mahabharata
complication of
history and discourse.
religion have
subversion of
historiographical
tradition
the
in
TGIN produces alternative interpretations and insights into
the processes of discourse.
63
The
predominant
concern
historical methodology,
part of history and
IAAL.
Amitab,
in
IAAL
may
be
seen
to
the processes by which events become
historiography.
The protagonist
is a research scholar on a mission
evidence on Bomma,
be
a slave who
lived
in
of
for
twelfth century
India. As a biographer Amitab can merely arrive at a general
outline of the slave’s
life.
Amitab does not use modern
technology to conduct his research,
journey of discovery.
The
making it a personal
slave’s master was an
Egyptian
who settled in Mangalore in India.
Ami tab’s investigations
regarding
to
doctoral
the
slave do
research
slave of
the
not
appear
in I AAL.
manuscript
of
his
He seems to have come upon
the
numbered
be
MS
the
H.6,
crux
incidentally.
Amitab describes the course of his entire investigation,
looking back from his narrative present,
1990.
visit
Egypt.
in
title of
1980
the
he
stayed
second
in
part
The section entitled
Lataifa
of
the
'Nashawy’
in
book
On his first
after
It
the
is
the
Prologue.
is mainly concerned with
Ami tab’s second journey to Egypt in 1988.
This section also
reviews the incidents of 1980 from his location not only in
1 988
but
also
'Mangalore*.
1 990,
The last
the
time
of
the
next
but one section called
section
'Going Back’
may be seen to refer to Ben Yiju’s return to Aden and Amitab
"looking back"
from 1990 at
entire exploration
he
not
only
looks
his Egyptian sojourns.
is an exercise in "going back".
back
at
his
64
stay
in
Egypt
in
His
In 1990
1980
and
1988, he also reconstructs his perceptions in 1980 and 1988.
The opening
this:
line of
"Looking
returned
in
the
back,
section
it
seems
1988.(291) .
between
"now"
between
"now"
'historical
and
and
future
journey’,
Back’
to
now
There
"then",
and
'Going
me
is
Ami tab
that
constant
also
time.
demonstrates
the
movements
course
uncovers
I
oscillation
proleptic
In
until
the
of
his
politics
underlying historiography and through his careful use of
modals of suggestion and probability,
undecided nature of
historical
he underscores the
knowledge.
Looking back at
the ways in which he had looked back in the past, Ami tab is
constantly revising and re-evaluating what he thought he
knew.
Ami tab’s journey through time and space touches many
areas of
human
anthropology,
politics of
research
knowledge
-
philology,
history,
religion,
their discourses.
conducted
at
the
civilizations - Egyptian and
overlapping
antediluvian
of
different
borderlines.
two cannot
be made;
sociology and
the
of
the
between
Indian - he
systems
the
process of
interface
A distinction
this thesis between Ami tab,
the author of IAAL.
In
historiography,
two
reveals
the
knowledge
and
has
been
made
in
the narrator of IAAL and Amitav.
An unambiguous separation between
the
reader
Ami tab because he
is called
suggest
authorial
intrusion because
Amitav
Ghosh’s
research
by
knows
that
the
narrator
name;
but
the
it
project,
65
that
refers
the
the
is
'Notes’
primarily
libraries
to
and
collections from which he gathered
relevant documents
and
his acknowledgement of contributions made by other scholars
and friends.
The ambiguity of
identity would
be
lost
if
either one name is chosen to indicate both.
The initials of the researcher Beigh Masters in THOTW
match
those of the author of the book, Bharati Mukherjee.
But to equate the two as suggested by Sat tar(1994) would rob
the book of
being one of
possibilities.
It
would
be an
attempt to co-opt reality into a totalitarian system in
which boundaries are transparent and clear-cut.
The
protagonist of THOTW calls herself an "asset-hunter", a
person who locates and deals with antiquarian objects
collectors.
Beigh Masters is a
'avatar’ of the traditional
interest
in
scholastic.
history
is
historical
not
She is involved
objects for a consideration.
late
solely
for
twentieth century
researcher.
intellectual
in the tracing of
Her
or
historical
In THOTW Masters searches for
the Emperor’s Tear, the diamond that rests on top of a gold
globe cupped by two hands, which belonged to Aurangzebe,
also
called
World’.
Alamgir.
Alamgir
meant
The Emperor’s Tear and
'Conqueror of
the
its gold globe setting
symbolized Aurangzebe’s power as 'The Holder of the World’.
Masters’s search for the diamond uncovers the hidden
conduits of antiquarian trade in the twentieth century.
also connects her to her ancestral
that
Hannah Easton,
history.
the American woman who
66
It
She discovers
is
called
the
Salem Bibi
in Mughal
paintings,
is related
to
her.
Hannah
Easton is also a route which may help her trace the diamond.
In a miniature painting called
calls
The Unravish’d Bride,
aloft the diamond.
Masters has
to
Salem Bibi
is depicted
holding
In order to retrieve the Emperor's Tear
"deconstruct
geography" and unravel
England"(11).
The Apocalypse which Masters
Just
the
as
the barriers of
"tangled
Ami tab
time and
lines of India and New
follows
the
Masters traces the life of Hannah in THQTW.
slave
in
IAAL.
Like Saleem in
MC and V.V.
in TGIN. Masters has an interlocutor in THQTW -
Venn Iyer.
Venn opens another
virtual
reality.
Dehumanization of
new meanings with
In
route
the advent
its earlier usage
of
it meant
Objectivity
process was sought
to
asset
knowledge
research
that
-
has acquired
technology-aided
discourse were divested of human
impersonal.
for
research.
products of
human
qualities, making them
greatly valued
be achieved
in
the
historical
by adhering strictly
to
historical evidence and by eschewing the use of rhetoric and
other
literary
techniques
in
historical
Cybernetics has added a new dimension
discourse.
to dehumanization of
human knowledge by taking over the historical
research,
is
and
an
discovery and dissemination.
immigrant
Indian who works
helps Masters
research does not
Masters.
Choosing
locate
mean
a
the
the
day
67
In THQTW Venn Iyer
in a computer
Emperor’s Tear.
same
in
process of
the
thing
past,
that
it
Venn
laboratory
For
Venn
does
for
feeds
the
computer every piece of information about it.
This mass of
information forms the base from which a time-space continuum
is created.
through'
Any person can then enter the programme and
the particular day.
'go
Here, dehumanization is an
apparent elimination of human intervention in the process of
discourse formation.
By following Hannah’s life through her
Memoirs and other items of evidence, Masters seems to reject
the
dehumanization
Unlike Ami tab
the
in
interface
entailed
IAAL Masters’s
between
entrepreneurial.
by
the
use
research
the
is
technology.
undertaken at
scholastic
and
the
Using a white woman’s life as a point of
entry into the subcontinent is a novel
by an
of
Indian English novelist.
It
technique to be used
is
a
strategy
to
blur
distinctions between author and narrator and insider and
outsider.
While
critical
articles and
reviews
on
the
four
texts
under scrutiny are available, one cannot but agree with John
Oliver Perry’s characterization of Indian critical
as one of
salient
"absent authority"(1992).
features of
expounds
problematizing
listing
’historiographic metafiction’
postmodernism needs to be redefined.
Hutcheon
Before
the
history.
Part
historiographic metafiction and
problematizes history and literature.
68
the
the
term
In Part I of her book
postmodern
In
practice
II
and
its
Hutcheon
the ways
role
in
examines
in which
it
Postmodernism
In Hutcheon’s conceptual
"fundamentally
inescapably
theory
in
contradictory,
political"(4).
the
according
conventional
to
Hutcheon,
oppositional terms is:
Hutcheon
framework postmodernism is
writes:
“...I
"double-talk"
This
historical,
Postmodernism
sense of
its
cannot
the word
position
on
and
be a
because,
any
binary
"it is both and neither"(18, 46).
postmodernism as defined
structure"(46).
resolutely
is
think
it
is
wrong
in any way by
in
keeping
an
with
to
see
"either/or"
the
political
of postmodernism as Hutcheon sees it.
The
paradox of the postmodern lies in its process of subversion
in which that which is sought
installed and
themselves
to be subverted is first
then that grounding process and
critically
questioned(92).
The
the grounds
scepticism
of
postmodernism is such that it "challenges everything"(209).
There is contradiction in postmodernism but no dialectic
because
“it
is
maintained(221).
in
the
that
the
doubleness
be
This essential doubleness is evinced also
ambivalence
especially
power.
essential”
concerns
of
of
postmodernism on
innovation,
most
issues
self-consciousness
and
Hutcheon prefers 'politically "unmarked"’ to the
term ambivalent(205).
She is aware also of attempts by
critics to distinguish two kinds of postmodernism.
She
chooses the one that is historically engage, problematically
referential because "I would argue that only [it]... proper1y
69
defines
postmodernism..."(52).
Hutcheon's
concept
of
postmodern is so indeterminate that the "the common kind of
vagueness"
she
wanted
to
avoid
remains.
that this conceptualization achieves
Postmodernism in Hutcheon's
only
is basically
Though she admits
historical
effect
“problematization".
scheme of things,
a problematizing project.
"indeterminate nature of
is
The
knowledge
that
is
the
certainly
not a discovery of postmodernism", Hutcheon asserts that the
concentration of
these
problematizations
in
postmodern art
has become impossible to ignore(88).
It is arguable whether
it
problematization
is
postmodernism
discourses.
causes
Though Hutcheon situates
postmodernism
postmodern
that
in
Europe
and
America
is framed by books,
of
the origins of
the
1960s,
films and works of
architecture that were produced until
of
the
art
1980s.
the
and
Thus,
postmodernism as a problematizing project follows the deed.
It
is now almost
practices
have
universally
an
conditions of
ideological
their
disputable whether
'postmodern'.
postmodernism
is.
"Cross
the Border
describe
a
this
is no general
refers
There seem
coined
the
term
- Close
de-Eliotisation
meaning
can
movement
in
cultural
but
be
to
two
it
is
on what
types
more.
of
Leslie
in his essay
Post-Modernism"
art.
the
labelled
agreement
to be many
Gap:
all
determine
'postmodernism*
that
70
that
which
recognition
Hutcheon
postmodernism(52).
first
subtext
production of
There
Fiedler
recognized
It
to
challenges
the privileging of 'serious’ literature over popular art and
the critic as the connoisseur of literary taste.
Postmodernism may be explored from its characterization
as pop art.
Pillai(1991)
differentiates
between
AppolIonian and Dionysian strains' of postmodernism.
Graff(1977)
identifies
two
strains
in
the
Gerald
postmodernism:
the
apocalyptic dominated by a sense of the "death of literature
and
criticism"
"hopefulness
radical
for
and
the
visionary
revolutionary changes
transformation
which
in society
of romantic and modernist assumptions,
both
and
through
in human consciousness"(218).
Graff argues that postmodernism is a “logical
neither a simple
expresses
radical
neither"(18) .
culmination"
for Hutcheon it
break nor a continuity Ihab
While
Hassan(1971)
"it
discerns
is
is
two
accents of silence in postmodernist literature: the negative
echo of language which is nihilist
stillness
that
is sacramental
and the positive
and plenary.
Another
appraisal of postmodernism distinguishes B-effect associated
with Baudrillard and C-effect associated
with Cage(Zurbrugg
1993). The B-effect conveys a sense of doom, catastrophe and
historical
indifference while the C-effect explores the
viability and value of innovations.
Historiographic Metafiction: Definition
Hutcheon explains that the term ‘historiographic
metafiction’
combines
“argument
71
by
poetics”(metafiction)
with
"argument
way
as
to
by
historicism"(historiographic)
mutually
interrogate
one
in
such
a
another(42) .
Bradbury(1977) discerned two consequences in the tendency of
fiction
and
to
from
text
to
withdraw
schematic
from
referential
formal
exist by the
composition,
organization.
One
was
"rhythm of composition”
concern with the lexical surface.
realism
for
the
itself,
a
The second is an interest
in the fictional
process as a parody of forms,
construct"(15).
The novel moved from its nineteenth century
conception as a realistic representation of
a “game-like
life to concern
for the fiction-making process embedded within the novel
itself.
Such metafictional
texts question
of writing and reading novels;
the conventions
they question the assumed
connections across happenings in a text in terms of a cause
and effect
reading
and stereotypes of
story and character
that have become entrenched as generic conventions. Such
texts also interrogate the novel's
reality.
Historiographic
metafictional
concern
for
representation of
metafiction
the process
by
shares
which
the
meaning
is
sought to be made not only in fiction but also in historical
discourse.
Historiographic
scepticism
or
interaction of
to
the
suspicion
about
participates
writing
of
in
the
history.
The
the historiographic and metafictional
forefront
"inauthentic"
metafiction
a
rejection
of
representations
72
both
and
brings
"authentic"
and
challenges
the
transparency
of
historical
history’s authority over
demarginalizes
the
referentiality.
By
questioning
truth historiographic metafiction
literary.
a. Referentialitv of Narrative
The
issues of
problematic
referentiality of
relationship
narrative and
the
narrative
and
between
historiography that emerge out of the four texts are similar
to the concerns of what Hutcheon terms
metafiction’.
Hutcheon derives theory from phenomenon that
has already occurred.
Since there cannot be duplication of
these phenomenon the frame alters with
other texts. These texts
external
'historiographic
reality
but
its application
to
use history not to portray an
to
explore
other
"realities".
Historiographic metafiction provides an appropriate
frame
for focusing on ways in which history has been used in these
novels.
Textuality of
interpretation
and
that
is
historical
invariably
the knowledge of
knowledge
linked
the past
indicates
that
to any narrative
text
is always mediated.
Just as a word can be understood only in relation to other
words, so texts can be situated only with reference to other
texts.
In the case of history,
73
texts are also read in the
context of the 'real”,
entextualized.
textual ism’
the
text
Termed
it
and
knowledge of which has already been
renders
the
by
deconstruction
problematic
context,
the
as
'disintegral
boundaries
questions
the
between
factuality of
history and raises doubts about historical methodology that
is supposedly based on evidence.
An implication of the
textualizat i on
the
of
context
interpretation and criticism.
necessarily becomes a way of
"Reality in sum,
is human;
is
combination
That is,
'reading'
intertextuality
a text and reality.
it is always that which we make
signify, never a mere given"(Gossman 1990 248).
studied
the mediation of
of
historical
White has
knowledge through
the
modes of emplotment, argument and ideological implication in
historiography.
Emplotment is the way a
story is sequenced
which makes it a particular kind of story.
b. Challenging History
Historiographic metafiction reminds its reader that
writers work not only in historical
interpretative contexts too.
contexts but their own
The past did exist before its
"entextualization”(Hutcheon 93).
What
is being called
into
question is the knowledge of the past - not whether the past
did
exist.
The
knowledge of
the
past
is
given
by
the
historian’s text which is an outcome of his or her analysis
of evidence.
complete.
Historical
evidence may not
Evidence that becomes fact
74
be continuous or
is discourse defined.
History
is
given
historian’s
a
continuity
arrangement
of
and
a
facts.
Aware
historiographic metafiction questions
historical
continuities.
between actual
themselves and
It
completion
of
this,
’facticity’
highlights
the
by
and
difference
past events that have no significance by
facts that
have a function and meaning
in
history. By doing this historiographic metafiction does not
reconcile history and literature - it remains an unresolved
contradiction. The provisionality and uncertainty of
historical interpretation is not reconciled. It seems to
acknowledge
without
resolve
the
limits and
powers of
indicating any solutions.
contradictions
historiographic
is
than "romans a these"’(180).
are
not
unified
philosophy.
by
a
And because
Hutcheon
metafiction
writing
'more
has
the
it does not
asserted
"romans
past
a
that
hypothese"
Historiographic metafictions
single
totalizing
historical
They are not "ideological novels” which try to
persuade their
readers to interpret
the world as they do.
The metafictional aspect of historiography explores how
history is written to give
attention on
reality meaning,
the process of
historical
thus focusing
interpretation.
Historiographic metafiction orders a world to fit it between
the first and last pages of a book but ironically reveals
the
shaping
interrogates
problematizes
process
the
the
and
its
product.
traditions of
ideologies
75
and
It
not
only
literary writing,
philosophies
it
underlying
historiography.
itself
Historiographic
metafiction
in a discursive context
universality.
is assumed
It questions,
to
be
reference is not
a
"situates"
refuting any claim
to
subverts and deconstructs what
historical
real.
It
asserts
correspondence and approaches
that
the past
critically not nostalgically. Questioning the referentiality
of
narrative
historical
raises
the
problem
of
the
valuing
of
truth over the literary.
c. Across discourses: Intertextualitv
The
textuality of
knowledge reveals
that
the
referent
of the text is other texts. Roland Barthes(1975) defined the
intertext
infinite
as
text"(36),
condition of
notions of
history
"the
impossibility
making
textuality.
literature
living
i ntertextuality
outside
an
the
inevitable
Inter textuality challenges
originality and
and
of
closure.
The
use of
undercuts any
texts
the
from
pretensions
to
authority or legitimacy that the former may have and refuses
to privilege one over the other.
Inter textuality
in
historiographic
metafiction
challenges notions of originality in literature. It opens up
t,he
closed
textual
world
and
relationship between the text and
overtly referring
any
fixed
to other
identity
problematizes
the
of
texts
the
text
concept
76
of
changes
the
mimetic
the objective world.
in
is
literature and
made
'real*
history
untenable.
and
By
blurs
It
the
traditional
boundaries
discursive
practices.
destabilizes 'received'
set
up
between
disciplines
Historiographic
and
metafiction
notions of history and fiction.
It
shows fiction to be historically conditioned and history to
be "discursively structured“(Hutcheon 120). No text
world
unto
'field'
itself
of
anymore.
signifying
texts(191).
practice,
It
The
text
practices,
opens
expanding
up
produced
'contaminated'
closed
frames
is
of
is a
by
systems of
reference,
in
a
other
cultural
indicating
intersections with various forms of cultural practice.
Historiographic metafiction challenges the practice of
breaking
up
knowledge
compartments.
into
various
disciplinary
Discourse has been foregrounded to show that
knowledge is not an uninterested, intellectual practice, but
is
political
Discourse
and
partial(that
is both an
Hutcheon uses Foucault
conjunction
of
metafiction
unfolding
power
the
discourse,
legitimacy
and
others.
know!edge(185).
itself
in which
in
power
Laying bare
certain
it.
its meaning,
By exploring
power.
the site of
discursive
context
influence
the conditions
metafiction
interpretations
Discourse is not neutral;
who conduct
a
biased).
Historiographic
equations
historiographic
that
and
to explain discourse as
positioning of discourse.
produce
incomplete
instrument and effect of
"situates"
the ways
is,
that
challenges
have
over
it is determined by those
the historical
conditions of
historiographic metafiction reveals
77
the
the
overlapping of power politics and discursive formation.
Consequently,
in McCaffery’s words,
"we
inhabit a world of
fiction"(1982 8). The term fiction has been used to refer to
historical
knowledge, questioning its claims over literature
to truth and exposing its subjective system.
In a private conversation with Dina Mehta author of And
some take a lover(1992), Mehta said,
would call
Jeanette
IAAL
a novel
Winterson
idea I
don’t
examined
At
the
here
same
write
fit
at all "(1994).
asserted:
novels....In so much as
idea
1977).
that
has no
the
of
call
None
my
hand
writing
of
the
four
text
novelistic categories.
the
centuries
limits except
the other
is a nineteenth century
into conventional
the
On
don’t
the novel
consistently changed over
form"
“I
novels” (1994).
time
"I don’t know whether I
novel
making
that of
itself
it
a
has
“free
1anguage(Fowles
Historiographic metafiction further opens up
category of the novel
the
by blurring its boundaries with other
discourses.
d. Subject(s) in/of history
Historiographic metafiction according to Hutcheon shows
how the subject of history
the
same
time
subject
is a subject
to
history.
in
history and at
Figuratively,
it
challenges the claim of objectivity in history and shows how
memory defines and gives meaning to subjectivity.
Narrative
dispersion in MC according to Hutcheon becomes the objective
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correlative of the decentring of the subject and of history.
The subversion of the stability of point of view, according
to Hutcheon is effected by overt, manipulative narrators and
myriad
voices.
themselves,
of
They
positions
and
reinvent
their protean identities contesting any notion
transcendental
subject.
and TGIN and the use of
while
shift
announcing
the
The use of autobiography by MC
the first person singular pronoun
subject
expectations of a unified
and
point
subjectivity
of
view and
thwarts
a single,
coherent subject. The narration of a historical
intertwined with the narration of
historical
historical
analogy
documents.
It
the self
challenges
the
recalls
between
history
and
memory
distinction between the private
problematic.
'I’
and
the
sanctity of
evidence and the textuality of the archive.
questions
transparent, coherent and integrated self.
language.
past
The
the
It makes any
the
public
'I’
Identity is perceived to be constituted in
The author
is
just as his writing is.
"situated"
in discursive
contexts
Intertextuality challenges notions
of original genius and the figure of the literary artist as
a visionary who 'authorizes’ special and unique insights
into the nature of the world and its representation.
Hutcheon supports her thesis with references to several
texts including Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel,
The
theoretical
framework
79
and Rushdie’s Shame and MC.
gains
credibility
from
these
various illustrations.
is made;
No detailed study of a single text
certain aspects of
texts are used
how historiographic metafiction works.
The
knowledge foregrounds the use of language.
are
ways
in
which
the
to demonstrate
textuality of
Irony and parody
contradictory
historiographic metafiction may
be
nature
presented.
of
Figurative
language, "tropical discourse" in White’s terms, may be used
as a common thread running through a narrative to give some
semblance of coherence.
Intertextuality expands the scope
of
its speaking subject
the
text,
connects
to other
discourses and intersects different categories of knowledge
locating historiographic metafiction along a continuum
between reality and discourse.
A text
that can be called
historiographic metafiction is not only situated within an
overlap between theory and practice,
also evinces that same overlap.
and exchange’
of
The
the discourse in it
‘sites of negotiation
this overlap may be located by examining
the text’s arrangement of words, organization of events, the
position of its speaking subject(s) and the types of
discourses used.
The
third,
fourth and
fifth chapters
discuss the organization of each of the four texts,
the
positioning of the subject in them and the use of different
types of discourse.
Of
the
four
texts
MC
has
received
the
maximum
attention. It is not only the earliest book to be published
of
the
four,
it
is also
the
80
first
of
its
kind.
With
its
publication
the
peripheral
character of
Indian
English
literature changed dramatically. The treatment of history in
MC continues to generate controversy and the complexity of
its
organization
makes
different
permutations
and
combinations possible at every reading.
Each of the four texts uses history in its own way. The
analysis of the texts in terms of organizing principles,
positioning of subject and use of discourse yields varying
results.
MC dominates discussions on narrative strategies;
the examination of
the portrayal
of
historical
characters
and events in TGIN is most influential in the debate on the
representation of reality in narrative; IAAL gives a number
of instances of
the politics underlying historiography;
THOTW implicates cybernetics in the question of whether
technology provides more “objectivity"
in historical
research. The treatment of the relationship between history
and literature is different in each book.
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