A term originally coined by Linda Hutcheon, in A Poetics of Postmodernism, historiographic metafiction includes those postmodern works, usually popular novels, which are “both intensely self-reflexive and paradoxically lay claim to historical events and personages”. This is categorically a postmodern art form that relies heavily on textual play, parody and historical re-conceptualisation.

Examples of historiographic metafiction include the works of Michael Ondaatje (Running in the Family, In the Skin on a Lion, The English Patient and Coming through Slaughter) and Salman Rushdie (Shame and Midnight’s Children). Other practitioners include Peter Ackroyd, Thomas Pynchon, Angela Carter and Umberto Eco etc.

Categories: Literary Criticism, Literary Theory, Philosophy, Postmodernism

Tags: A Poetics of Postmodernism, Angela Carter, Coming through Slaughter, Historiographic Metafiction, In the Skin on a Lion, Linda Hutcheon, Michael Ondaatje, Midnight's Children, parody, Peter Ackroyd, Running in the Family, Salman Rushdie, Shame, Thomas Pynchon, Umberto Eco