| Edgar Lawrence Doctorow(1931--) occupies a central position in the history of American literature. Due to his great devotion to evoke twentieth- and twenty-first-century American life through his pens, Doctorow has received many prizes. Now, although he is seventy-six, he is still active in American literary world. Doctorow is widely recognized as one of America's great masters of the historical novel. His historical novels, The Book of Daniel(1970), Ragtime(1975), Billy Bathgate(1989) and The March(2005). Especially Ragtime concerning American history and political environment, establishes him as one of the leading American writers. Many historical events and figures are involved in the novel with Doctorow's great concerns: Freud, Jung, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, even American Presidents are captured by Doctorow to create his fictional world. Due to his constant and conscientious representations of the American social-cultural life and political involvement, Doctorow is considered by many literary critics as 'A Radical Jewish Humanist' focusing on history and politics.His changeable themes and frequent participation in social events and great consideration on writers' status and constant attention to American government receive great success in movie-making, which makes critics more concerned with Doctorow's works and ideas. Among his published works, Ragtime is his biggest success, which won the first National Book Critics Circle Award and an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy in 1976. Ragtime catches the sight of many critics for its concern for history and politics. Doctorow wins great praise as one of the top echelon of American novelist, but causes little attention on him in China. There are a few people who do researches on him and his works in China. This paper will employ the theories of New Historicism, which was initiated in early 1980s in America and Britain, to assess Doctorow's thematic and aesthetic concerns in Ragtime. My argument is that Doctorow's Ragtime fully embodies the postmodern status of history, the New Historicist tendency of Doctorow in Ragtime.Chapter 1 firstly introduces Doctorow's life and literary career, the plot of Ragtime. Then, some comments on Doctorow and his novels home and abroad. Lastly, lists theoretical frame and thematical structure of this thesis. Chapter 2 introduces New Historicism: the rise of New Historicism, the theories of New Historicism (focusing mainly on the theory of "histories and texts" raised by L. Montrose,) and analyzes the relationship between history and fiction.Chapter 3 firstly analyzes the new historicist theories of "the historicity of texts", that is, literary texts are not only the material products of specific historical conditions, but also functional components of historical formations. This chapter intends to argue through the angle of New Historicism that the Doctorow's texts not only reflect the various social and cultural conditions of his time, they also make the new epoch of understanding history. Therefore, Doctorow's texts participate in the formation of American intellectual and cultural history, with which they form what new historicism calls the "constructed intertextuality". In Ragtime, historical events in the early 20th century have been represented in his works, and the industrial development and the poor living conditions of lower class, conflicts among multicultures, American history and politics are hypersensitively observed by Doctorow. Doctorow's text not only shows the connection between real figures and fictional history, which is the text of formation of new historicism, but also impels the consciousness of our time. Then, this chapter analyzes Doctorow's strategies of composing his text.Chapter 4 firstly discusses that history is a different text in different period: the traditional historical text is of objectivity and reality, but postmodern historical text is of subjectivity and fiction. Doctorow's postmodern novel Ragtime displays a picture of historical fragments: real figures and historical events in history connected by fictional plot. In postmodern critical context, history, as literature, is a text, a narrative, a linguistic construct that can be told and retold and is subjective and fictive. So this postmodem situation of history is called "textuality" by new historicism. Historical facts exist only as textual traces, and we can only know history in textual forms. But history in the texts written by historian and novelist is absolutely daubed with their prejudice, and attitudes. So the inauthenticity of history inevitably exists in documents and texts. Secondly, it displays Doctorow's strategies in constructing fictional history in Ragtime: replication and intertextuality; Doctorow puts a lot of names of real figures and historical events in his novel in order to inform the reader that history exists in various kinds of texts, and we can only know history through textual traces, while he attempts to imply the objectivity and authenticity of his narrative. Lastly, it analyzes the purpose that Doctorow adopts postmodern writing techniques is to make readers understand the falsehood of American history. Doctorow makes real figures and a fictional figure live together; and makes historical figures meet each other. Readers may doubt the authenticity of Doctorow's novel. What is history? After reading Ragtime, everyone will be clear about history: history is of subjectivity and fiction.Conclusion: Doctorow's consideration and coincidental representation of the new historicist theories of "the historicity of texts" and "the textuality of history" in Ragtime make him conspicuous in the American literary world. In addition the most important conclusion we can draw through the perspective of new historicism is the correct understanding of history, fiction, fictional history. Doctorow intends to make his readers jump out of the trap of fictional history and make a clear mind about real fact. Doctorow, a great novelist, creates the epoch of both novel and literary criticism.
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