The Historical Narrative In Graham Swift’s Fiction

Graham Swift (1949-) is an important contemporary English writer. The merging of historical narrative and literary narrative characterizes all his novels. Traditionally, historical narrative belongs to the positivism category, which is trying to explore the objective historical truth through scientific research, analysis and induction; literary narrative belongs to the fictional and imaginary category, which has been seen as autonomous and unrelated to the truth of external reality. However, Swift thoroughly deconstructs such an absolute distinction in his fiction:historical narrative has imaginary characteristics while literary narrative can truthfully reflect reality to some extent. They are both the products of linguistic constructs.Swift’s historical novels always display a historical epistemological uncertainty, which results from traditional historical narratives whose fundamental character is the grand narrative. Swift shakes the essentialism of traditional historical narratives through deconstructing the grand narrative and narrating "simulated" history. Shuttling from history to story, historiographic metafiction and intertextuality are the three main strategies Swift adopts to construct textualized history. As a novelist who has a strong consciousness of historical philosophy, he constantly and unconsciously reveals such a humanistic care:returning to "history in mind" and searching for the spiritual significance of narrating history."History in mind" has two meanings in this dissertation. On the one hand, it refers to the re-enactment of the past through the mind of the characters in the novels. On the other hand, it refers to the spiritual transformation and sublimation achieved during the historical re-enactment. Swift distinguishes himself from other contemporary historical novelists in emphasizing "history in mind." Exploring the significance of "history in mind" implied in his fiction is the shining point of this dissertation. Swift occupies an important position in contemporary literature, but till now, at home and abroad, there is still not a systematic research done on his historical narrative, not to mention his "history in mind." Therefore, this study has great theoretical significance and practical value. The dissertation consists of the "Introduction," the main body and the "Conclusion." The Introduction gives a general outline of Swift’s literary career and achievements, a survey of Swift’s criticism at home and abroad and the structure of this dissertation. The main body consists of four chapters and the following are the sequential steps towards the comprehension of Swift’s writings:(1) questioning the traditional historical narrative,(2) deconstructing the grand narrative,(3) constructing textualized history,(4) returning to "history in mind."Chapter One discusses how Swift questions the traditional historical narrative through highlighting the epistemological uncertainty. In all Swift’s novels, we can clearly perceive that the narrators have a strong Faustian desire for knowledge of history. Swift suggests, in both theme and form, his awareness of the impossibility of truly capturing the past and of the provisionality of any historical construction. Pursuing "what really happened" in the past is the main theme for almost all his novels. The historical epistemological crisis is underlined by unreliable narrators and the genre of anti-detective fiction. Traditional historical narratives often take the narrator’s reliability for granted, while Swift adopts unreliable narrators (narrators in self-reflexivity and in "mise-en-abyme")."Mise-en-abyme," a prominent postmodernist device, is an enclosed narrative that reflects the framing narrative with the purpose to rob events of their solidity. Traditional detective fiction implies such an ideology:logic and reason can help people get rid of the chaotic world to obtain order and peace. This kind of fiction always exhibits a mysterious world and makes a detective of genius solve a criminal case or unlock the riddle, hence satisfies the reader. These factors are just the points that anti-detective fiction endeavors to deconstruct. Anti-detective fiction is a sub-genre of detective fiction. It makes use of the structural elements of traditional detective fiction only to undermine its naive expectation to arrive at an explanation through research. The anti-detective fiction enhances the epistemological uncertainty. The reason why Swift highlights epistemological crisis is that he intends to question the traditional historical narrative.Chapter Two expounds on how Swift deconstructs the grand narrative and narrates "simulated" history."Grand narrative" is synonymous with master narrative or metanarrative, referring to all those organizing frameworks that presupposed the belief in, and the doctrine of God, reason, transcendental truth and science. It is an important term created by French philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard who defines postmodernism as the attitude of rejecting grand narratives, as "incredulity towards metanarratives." It mainly takes two forms. One is "speculative narrative" represented by the German classical philosophy tradition, and the other is "emancipation narrative" represented by the French enlightenment tradition. It is the fundamental character of traditional historical narratives. It holds that linguistic representation can reflect the historical truth; historical development follows a rational, linear and teleological pattern. This chapter focuses on Waterland to analyze how Swift uses language dilemma to deconstruct linguistic representation. He uses causality failure, circular development patterns, and "the end of history" to deconstruct the rational, linear and teleological development of history. Swift’s questioning and critique of grand narrative are further strengthened in Out of This World. This chapter focuses on this novel to study how Swift takes advantage of modern media, such as photos and televisions, to manifest the impossibility of truthful representation of the past. In this aspect, Swift coincides with Jean Baudrillard who argues that "simulation" disconnects the relationship between image and historical reference. He proclaims that "simulated" history is "a real without origin or reality." During the process of infinite copying and reproducing, the boundary between the original and the imaginary, the truthful and the fictional has been completely dissolved. Hence people live in a "floating chain of significance." This chapter explores how Swift narrates "simulated" history from the aspects of television, photography and the real world.Chapter Three explores how Swift constructs textualized history through merging historical narrative and literary narrative. He mainly adopts three strategies:blending of history and story, historiographic metafiction and intertextualized history. Firstly, this chapter takes Waterland as the study case to analyze how Swift manifests the close relationship between history and story; how he uses the detective story to explain the process of historiography; how he highlights the textuality of history by taking fairy-tales, superstitions and rumors as the indispensable narrative genres. Historiographic metafiction, a term originally created by Canadian literary theorist Linda Hutcheon, refers to fiction that is "both intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also lay[s] claim to historical events and personages." Waterland, Shuttlecock, Out of This World and Ever After can all be defined as historiographic metafiction. In Swift’s historiographic metafiction we can find that "the metaficitive and the historiographic meet in the intertexts of the novel." The historical reference in his fiction is not in the sense of ontology, but in the sense of texts and intertexts. Swift indicates that we can not find out the original fact in the past, but only the narratives about the past through the traces of historical events. This chapter focuses on Waterland, Ever After and Last Orders to explore how Swift constructs intertextulized history.Chapter Four delves into how Swift returns to "history in mind" through historical interpretation and historical narrative. The Italian historian Benedetto Croce said that "all the history is the contemporary history." English historian George Collingwood argued that "all history is the history of ideas." History is the past events and persons filtered through contemporary people’s minds. Rewriting history is to serve people’s present needs and desires. Based on the theories of Nietzsche, Dilthey, Collingwood, Heidegger and Hayden White, this dissertation reveals Swift’s "history in mind" from two aspects. On the one hand, it refers to the re-enactment of the past through the mind of the characters in the novels. History is not a fixed, transcendental, metaphysical existence. Rather, it is created by narrative and interpretation. On the other hand, it refers to the spiritual transformation and sublimation achieved during the historical re-enactment. In the depth of human’s heart, there are the desires for power, love, self-identification and spiritual sublimation. Historical narrative and its interpretation can satisfy these desires. Swift reveals the essence and significance of history. His interest in historical narration is not for its representative function, but for its positive, performative and therapeutic effects. He suggests that narrating the past can enrich our present living experience and offer a way of coming to terms with the present and the future. This chapter focuses on Shuttlecock to analyze how the character Prentis achieves a sense of power through interpreting his father’s war memoir; focuses on Ever After to illustrate how Bill obtains his self-identification through interpreting his ancestor’s journal; focuses on Waterland to expound how characters use historical narrative as a tool to ward off the "nothingness" of reality and endow their lives with meaning; focuses on Last Orders to discuss the theme of "historical narrative and spiritual sublimation" and explore how the funeral journey develops into a "journey between the past and the present," and "a journey of spiritual sublimation."The conclusion gives a summary of Swift’s historical narratives and highlights the significance of this study. Studying history should be beneficial to mankind, which is the function of historical novels, the essence of Swift’s historical novels, and the purpose of this dissertation. In the postmodern context, broken subjects, meaninglessness and value nihilism prevail. Swift’s masterly writings provide readers with a new dimension to understand history. His fiction represents how the lost modern people reflect on the real predicament and pursue strenuously the meaning and order of life. Swift seems to tell us that the ultimate goal of any narrative is to return to our spirit and soul.