| In the postcolonial world, 'official history' has been recognized as an impediment to the development of an identity appropriate to 'decolonized' nations. This thesis examines three texts that confront this problem: Badlands by a Canadian writer/critic Robert Kroetsch, Oscar and Lucinda by the Australian novelist Peter Carey, and Symmes Hole by the New Zealand writer/poet Ian Wedde. Linda Hutcheon argues that the reinscription of history, or "historiographic metafiction", is prototypical of a postmodern context. It places an emphasis on the metafictional processes of reading, writing, and interpretation; and on its politically charged attempt to rewrite a history that includes the voices the traditional texts exclude. The writers interrogate gender roles, the treatment of aboriginal people, the effects of economic colonialism, and the cultural remnants of colonization in contemporary postcolonial countries by reinterpreting history. This thesis demonstrates that a common literary strategy for the subversion of traditional history has emerged in the settler/invader colonies. |
