A New Historic Study On Let The Great World Spin

Colum McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin is the winner of the 2009 National Book Award.Author of six novels,Mc Cann was born in Ireland and now lives in New York.He has been regarded as an international writer who writes about different cultures.His inspiration for the novel Let the Great World Spin was an emotional response to the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York,where his father-in-law worked at the World Trade Center on the day of the attack and narrowly escaped.The major events of the novel happen on a single day in 1974 in New York,when a man walks on wire between the Twin Towers of World Trade Center,with a kaleidoscope of characters from different ethnic and social background,such as young monk,prostitutes,judge,and bereaved mothers of the Vietnam War.The fictional wire-walker in the novel is based on a real historical figure Philippe Petit,a famous high-wire artist who walked on a tightrope between the Twin Towers of World Trade Center in August 1974.This figure plays a pivotal role in all the other characters’ stories,connecting all their stories together.The novel can be studied as a new historic novel in that it chooses a somewhat obscure and dramatic historical anecdote,that is the wire-walk of Philippe Petit,to give it important meaning;and the novel puts it focus on marginalized and often neglected characters,telling their story of ordinary life yet extraordinary story of love and despair.The fictional characters interact with historical figures,and the author takes history at his liberty,blurring the line between fiction and reality.The author pays attention to historical details,giving the novel a historical credibility.But he does not let history define literature.Instead,he entertains the possibility of what might have happened in history instead of what really happened.What’s more,he depicts the 1974 New York as a metaphor to the present day New York,giving the readers a sense of reconciliation with the aftermath of 9/11 just like what the characters in 1974 have done with their pain in the novel.Through a new historic study,this paper finds that the novel successfully breaks the boundary between reality and fiction,and that of history and literature,offering a possible way of looking at the despair in life and providing the readers with a sense of reconciliation with harsh realities.The author emphasizes that there is always a bright side even in the darkest of time,and we must face the passing of time bravely and we will always find salvation.This study is divided into five parts.The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the author and the novel,and a recap of the current studies on the novel as well as provides the theoretical basis of New Historicism,focusing on the practices and studies of Stephen Greenblatt and Katherine Gallagher,Hayden White,and Michel Foucault.The second chapter analyzes the depiction of history in the novel,focusing on how the author pays attention to minute historical details and how he fictionalizes Philippe Petit as well as his breaking up of chronological time and changes of perspective to show the interpretation of history,as well as his precise choosing of narrative style to show the characters’ state of mind.Chapter Three discusses the new historic traits in the novel,mainly the attention to anecdotes and marginalized characters,and the intertextuality of 1974 New York and post 9/11 New York.Chapter Four analyzes on the relationship between literature and history shown in the novel,namely the subjectivity of history and literature’s role in history,which is the offering of possibilities of history and finding reconciliation through literary creation.Then Chapter Five gives a conclusion.