Our time of demystified heroes and legends, has only a vague understanding of history and struggles for its interpretation.
History in this context does not only mean the mere sequence of specific incidents and events that cannot be changed retroactively by any access to the past. This concept is furthermore a discussion on these events that is their interpretation. That means that history is and in this form it is most likely to be perceived, the connection of object and subject, referring to the events in the temporal past and its spectator in the present. This creates a subjective ribbon that connects temporal past and present by dint of an interpretive frame. Indeed the past cannot be changed, but its interpretation and analysis can be.
This is exactly the approach of Stephen Fry who provides with his novel Making History a possible answer to the question, how Germany and the world might have developed without Adolf Hitler. Supported by historical facts and enriched by fictitious elements, Fry’s novel affords the reader a manual for the exposure to one’s own past and distorts the understanding of history of the broad majority who ascertains a single man, Adolf Hitler, to be the root for all evil.
The following text tries to analyze the role of historical fiction for one’s accomplishment of history in general and how Fry in particular does away with the common view that history is barely more than the sequence of big men’s big actions.
Therefore, I would like to proceed from the assumption that Making History is a critical metaphor for the work of historiographs who create history by interpreting, omitting and stressing of historical facts. The novel also expresses one’s responsibility for the past one builds his present and future on. Fry uses his protagonist’s thesis, the “Meisterwerk” as a metafictional element to clarify the meaning of historical fiction for developing the understanding of history. Furthermore I will try to clarify the novel’s affiliation to the genre of metahistoriography after a short theoretical digression about this literary field.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Concept of History and Fry’s Interpretation of History
3. Short Digression on Metafiction
4. Michael Young and his “Meisterwerk” as Metafictional References
5. Metahistoriography and Cultural Memory - Outlook
Objectives and Core Topics
This academic paper examines the role of metafiction in shaping our understanding of history, specifically focusing on how historical narratives are constructed and interpreted. By analyzing Stephen Fry’s novel Making History, the study explores the intersection between fiction and historiography, arguing that history is a human construct subject to interpretive frames rather than an objective sequence of past events.
- The relationship between historical fact and textual interpretation.
- The definition and application of historiographic metafiction.
- The use of "Meisterwerk" as a metafictional device in Fry's novel.
- The construction of cultural memory and its susceptibility to manipulation.
- The responsibility of the individual in shaping historical consciousness.
Excerpt from the Book
Michael Young and his “Meisterwerk” as Metafictional References
Although Fry’s novel lacks the extratextual instance that in the previous chapter was mentioned as a characteristic of metafictional texts, it deals nevertheless critically with the past time event’s analysis by his protagonist’s doctoral thesis, the so called “Meisterwerk”. Hence Making History has to be regarded as implicit metahistoriographic fiction.
Michael Young, graduate in history is not only the novel’s protagonist but the projection screen for metahistoriographic issues. His rejected thesis not only tells the story of the young Adolf Hitler in extracts as a story parallel to the actual storyline, but thematizes exemplarily the “making” of history. Classifying popular historians at the beginning of the novel as either belonging stylistically to the forties and fifties on the one hand or the sixties and seventies on the other, Young comes to the conclusion that both, the fogeyish and heavy historian are outdated and that a historian should belong to his own past more than anyone else to understand what happened in the past (Fry 63). This assumption refers to the discourse concerning the retrospective generation of sense of certain events in the past, a process that Young defines as to “historifying” the past (Fry 63). In a conversation with Leo Zuckerman, Young states that historians from the forties and fifties had the advantage of being able to talk to victims and witnesses of the Holocaust, granting them direct access to the past whereas he as a “history surfer” (Fry 64) can only examine old notes, recordings and other historians’ interpretations of the past. He resumes that he did not come across anything that had not been seen before and refers again to the historiography’s issue of direct access to the past.
Summary of Chapters
Introduction: This chapter establishes the theoretical premise that history is a subjective, interpretive construct and introduces Stephen Fry’s novel as a case study for challenging traditional historiographical views.
The Concept of History and Fry’s Interpretation of History: This section explores the postmodern discourse on historiography, emphasizing that history is conditioned by textuality and that Fry uses his novel to demonstrate how alternative narratives challenge fixed perceptions of the past.
Short Digression on Metafiction: This chapter provides a theoretical overview of metafiction and historiographic metafiction, drawing on scholars like Linda Hutcheon and Kurt Müller to define how texts can simultaneously represent and critique historical reality.
Michael Young and his “Meisterwerk” as Metafictional References: This chapter analyzes the protagonist's doctoral thesis within the novel as a metafictional device that allows the author to examine the process of "historifying" events and the limits of access to the past.
Metahistoriography and Cultural Memory - Outlook: The final chapter discusses how metahistoriographic fiction contributes to cultural memory, arguing that such works help readers to own their past and develop the historical consciousness necessary for shaping the future.
Keywords
Metafiction, Historiographic Metafiction, Stephen Fry, Making History, Historiography, Cultural Memory, Postmodernism, Textuality, Historical Consciousness, Metahistoriography, Adolf Hitler, Narrative Construction, Representation, Alternative History, Literary Criticism
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper explores the role of metafictional elements in historical novels and how these techniques influence our understanding of history as an interpreted construct rather than a static truth.
What are the primary thematic fields covered?
The work covers historiography, postmodern literary theory, the structure of cultural memory, and the specific narrative techniques used by Stephen Fry in his novel.
What is the central research objective?
The primary objective is to analyze how Making History functions as a critical metaphor for historiographic practice and how it challenges the common perception that history is merely a sequence of "big men's" actions.
Which scientific methodology is utilized?
The author uses a literary analysis approach, drawing on established definitions of metafiction and metahistoriography by scholars such as Linda Hutcheon, Ansgar Nünning, and Kurt Müller to interpret the novel.
What topics are examined in the main body?
The main body treats the distinction between the past as events and history as a textualized interpretation, the role of the protagonist's "Meisterwerk" as a self-referential device, and the socio-political implications of alternative historical timelines.
Which keywords characterize the work?
The most defining terms include Historiographic Metafiction, Cultural Memory, Textuality, and Historical Consciousness.
How does the author define the "Meisterwerk" in the novel?
The "Meisterwerk" is described as the protagonist's rejected doctoral thesis, which acts as a metafictional reference point to highlight the historian's task of filling historical gaps with meaning.
What is the significance of the "What if?" scenario in Fry's novel?
The "What if?" scenario serves to demonstrate that history is a complex construction and that even if specific events were altered, the underlying structures of society and prevailing ideologies remain influential.
- Quote paper
- Stefan Zeidler (Author), 2007, Making History and Making it Over, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/90976
