Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes’s most acclaimed novel worldwide, poses and playfully elaborates on questions about traditional(ist) understandings of history and conventional concepts of truth, which are also frequently asked by postmodern theorists and philosophers. How can we know the past? Can we ever do so on objective grounds? Are we not bound to (socio-culturally determined) modes of representation that prevent us from thinking or writing about anything but representation? Does the past even exist outside of our systems of signification or is it merely the product of these systems?
In postmodern thought these kinds of questions are raised in the context of an increasing scepticism towards realist or modernist ontology and epistemology. Philosophers and writers such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and later Hayden White and Keith Jenkins testify to the assumption that “history now appears to be just one more foundationless, positioned expression in a world of foundationless, positioned expressions” (Jenkins 1997: 6), stressing that there is an inescapable relativity in every representation (or rather re-interpretation) of historical entities (cf. White 1997: 392).
However, in this paper I will hope to show that, despite it being “a very hard [and indeterminate] act to follow” (Barth 1980: 66), history is not dead in Barnes’s novel and neither is the pursuit of (its) meaning. In fact, both remain subjects of a longing for truth and authenticity that is repeatedly re-invented, played with, undermined and reinstalled, rather than deconstructed, in the course of FP’s narrative.
I intend to divide my paper into two sections, each of them further divided into several sub-parts. In section one I will at first provide a short compendium of postmodern philosophical-theoretical assumptions on history and historiography and their relation to the (de)construction of representation, truth and knowledge and thereafter show how these assumptions are critically acclaimed by traditional(ist) historians. With this theoretical background at hand, in section two I will proceed to the actual analysis of FP with regard to its appropriation of or divergence from postmodern thoughts and (literary) presuppositions. In so doing I will hope to show that, although inspired by postmodern theories, Barnes does not dwell in eternal indeterminacy or ‘historic nihilism’ but attempts to actively engage with history and the difficulties involved in the process of its pursuit.
Table of Contents
1.) INTRODUCTION
2.) THEORTEICALCONSIDERATIONS ON POSTMODERN CONCEPTS OF HISTORY
2.1) Postmodern Theories of History – (De)Constructing Representation, Knowledge and Truth
2.2) Postmodern Concepts of History under Criticism: Postmodernists vs. Traditionalist Historians
3.) ANALYSIS – STRUGGLING WITH FLAUBERT’S PARROT (1984)
3.1) Postmodern Theories of History in Flaubert’s Parrot(1984)
3.1.1) “How do we seize the past?” – The Indeterminacy of (Historical) Knowledge
3.1.2) “What happened to the truth is not recorded” – Unattainable Truth(s) and Multiple Perspectives
3.1.3) “The right words don’t exist” - The Inadequacy of (Linguistic) Representation
3.2) Flaubert’s Parrot – Beyond the Postmodern Crisis of History?
3.2.1) Pre-Postmodern Notions of History and Narrative
3.2.2) Braithwaite’s Post-Postmodern Pursuit(s) of History
4.) CONCLUSION
5.) WORKS CITED
Research Objectives and Themes
This thesis examines the postmodern crisis of history through the lens of Julian Barnes's novel Flaubert's Parrot. It investigates how the narrator, Geoffrey Braithwaite, engages with the complexities of historical truth and representation, ultimately arguing that despite postmodern skepticism, the pursuit of historical meaning remains a vital and valid human endeavor.
- The theoretical challenge postmodernism poses to traditional historiography.
- The struggle between objective historical research and subjective narrative construction.
- The analysis of Flaubert's Parrot as a work that navigates between postmodern doubt and the human need for authentic meaning.
- The significance of narrative and 'the search' as a means of coping with personal loss and existential uncertainty.
Excerpt from the Book
“How do we seize the past?” – The Indeterminacy of (Historical) Knowledge
FP’s narrator appears to share this rather negative view on the limitations and the indeterminacy of historical knowledge. In the course of his engagement with the life and art of the French writer Gustave Flaubert he repeatedly (and often self-consciously) draws the reader’s attention to the contradictory and ambivalent nature of historiography as an agglomeration of historical reconstructions that, in postmodern terms , can never be free from our assumptions about what makes ‘facts’ and what makes ‘history’, and that will therefore always be dependent on subjective accounts:
“How do we seize the foreign past? We read, we learn, we ask, we remember, we are humble; and then a casual detail shifts everything. […] We can study files for decades, but every so often we are tempted to throw up our hands and declare that history is merely another literary genre: the past is autobiographical fiction pretending to be a parliamentary report.” [FP: 136/137]
Yet, Geoffrey Braithwaite feels tempted only “every so often” (ibid.) and not always. As a matter of fact, he seems not only willing to engage with the difficulties and paradoxes involved with studying the past but also prepared for a potential failure. From the beginning onwards the Flaubert-addict is in doubt about the possibility of finding “some ancillary truth” (ibid.: 4) in the leavings of past lives and presents himself as aware of “the question of authenticity” (ibid.: 20), facing the assumption that researching a past life means fishing for facts with nets full of “holes tied together with string” (ibid.: 47) . As he goes on:
Summary of Chapters
1.) INTRODUCTION: This chapter introduces the core research question regarding the postmodern crisis of history and posits that Barnes's novel offers a more nuanced approach than radical deconstructionism.
2.) THEORTEICALCONSIDERATIONS ON POSTMODERN CONCEPTS OF HISTORY: Provides a comprehensive overview of postmodern critiques of historiography, covering Foucault, Lyotard, and Derrida, and contrasts these with traditional historical perspectives.
3.) ANALYSIS – STRUGGLING WITH FLAUBERT’S PARROT (1984): This central section analyzes the novel, demonstrating how the narrator balances his desire for truth with the inherent limitations of language and historical evidence.
4.) CONCLUSION: The author summarizes the findings, reiterating that the pursuit of history is a cathartic and necessary process that persists despite the postmodern awareness of its inherent instabilities.
5.) WORKS CITED: A comprehensive list of the academic sources utilized throughout the thesis.
Keywords
Postmodernism, Historiography, Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot, Geoffrey Braithwaite, Historical Truth, Narrative, Language, Representation, Deconstructionism, Metafiction, Post-postmodernism, Subjectivity, Authenticity, Identity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
This paper explores the intersection of postmodern literary theory and historical practice as presented in Julian Barnes's novel Flaubert's Parrot.
What are the primary themes discussed?
The main themes include the indeterminacy of historical knowledge, the limitations of language in representing reality, and the human drive to find meaning through personal narrative.
What is the main research question?
The thesis asks how Barnes's work addresses the postmodern "crisis of history" and whether this engagement leads to total nihilism or a new form of post-postmodern understanding.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The author uses a literary-theoretical analysis of the novel, placing it within the broader discourse of historiographic metafiction and engaging with philosophical concepts from thinkers like Foucault and Lyotard.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The analysis investigates the reliability of the narrator, the significance of the "parrot" metaphor, and the tension between the search for facts and the reality of subjective interpretation.
What keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include Postmodernism, Historiography, Flaubert's Parrot, Narrative, Subjectivity, and Truth.
How does the narrator view the relationship between history and fiction?
The narrator is caught between acknowledging that history is a form of constructed fiction and the profound desire to recover authentic, "true" elements of the past.
Why is the parrot metaphor significant?
The parrot represents the narrator's obsession with locating an authentic voice or truth, while simultaneously illustrating the ultimate impossibility of finding a stable, original meaning through language.
What role does the narrator's personal grief play?
The narrator's search for Flaubert is fundamentally linked to his own personal trauma; his pursuit of the writer acts as a way to process his own grief and search for meaning in his life.
- Quote paper
- Tessa Tumbrägel (Author), 2011, Struggling With the Postmodern Crisis of History in Julian Barnes's Flaubert's Parrot (1984), Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/187712
