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Volume : I, Issue : XI, December - 2011

History between Oblivion and Storytelling in Graham Swift's Waterland

Ecaterina Pãtraºcu

Published By : Laxmi Book Publication

Abstract :

The article focuses on Graham Swift's Waterland from the history – temporality dialectical perspective against the theoretical background of the postmodern view on history and the presence of a realistic trend in the British contemporary novel. Swift's novel illustrates the postmodern characteristics of a pluralist perspective on history, with past events as plausible constructions, discourses modeled on imagination as well; on the other hand, it is a sustainable illustration of the realist tendency in the British contemporary fiction, Swift's novel treating history and temporality as palpable pressures that require to be understood and rebuilt in spite of memories remaining incomplete and histories lacking credibility. Storytelling functions as a modality of saving time against its self-destructive oblivion, the only modality by means of which temporality becomes meaningful in spite of fact randomness.

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Cite This Article :

Ecaterina Pãtraºcu, (2011). History between Oblivion and Storytelling in Graham Swift's Waterland. Indian Streams Research Journal, Vol. I, Issue. XI, http://oldisrj.lbp.world/UploadedData/603.pdf

References :

  1. Barnes, Julian, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Berdiaev, Nikolai, Sensul istoriei, Iasi, Polirom, 1996.
  2. Gasiorek, Andrzej, Post-war British Fiction. Realism and After, London, Eduard Arnold, 1995.
  3. Devitt, Michael and Kim Sterenly, Limbaj si realitate. O introducere in filosofia limbajului, Iasi, Editura Polirom, 2000.
  4. Lee, Alison, Realism and Power. Postmodern British Fiction, London and New York, Routledge, 1990.
  5. Ricoeur, Paul, The Reality of the Historical Past, Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1984.
  6. Scanlan, Margaret, Traces of Another Time: History and Politics in Postwar British Fiction, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990.
  7. Swift, Graham, Waterland, New York, Poseidon Press, 1983.
  8. Cooper, Pamela, “Imperial Topographies: the Spaces of History in Waterland”, in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 42, Issue 2, 1992, pp. 371 - 396.
  9. Irish, Robert K., “Let me tell you: About Desire and Narrativity in Graham Swift's Waterland”, in Modern Fiction Studies Vol. 44, no. 4, 1998, pp. 930 – 945.
  10. McKinney, Ronald H., “The Greening of Postmodernism: Graham Swift's Waterland”, in New Lierary History, Vol. 28, Issue 4, 1997, pp. 821 - 832.
  11. Ziegler, Heide, “Postromantic Irony in Postmodernist Times,” in Couturier, Maurice (ed.), Representation and Performance in Postmodern Fiction, Montpellier, Université Paul Valery, 1993, pp. 85-98.
  12. White, Hayden, “The Historical Text as Literary Artifact”, in Canary, Robert H. and Henry Kozicki (ed.), The Writing of History, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1978, pp. 140 – 154.
  13. Artefact”, in The Writing of History, ed. by Robert H. Canary and Henry Kozicki, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1978, p. 142. Ibidem, p. 143.
  14. Cf. Margaret Scanlan, Traces of Another Time: History and Politics in Postwar British Fiction, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 74.
  15. Heide Ziegler, “Postromantic Irony in Postmodernist Times,” in Maurice Couturier (ed.), Reprsentation and Performance in Postmodern Fiction, Montpellier, Université Paul Valery, 1993, p. 87.
  16. Mark Platts, quoted in Andrzej Gasiorek, Post-war British Fiction. Realism and After, London, Eduard Arnold, 1995, p.207.
  17. Michael Devitt, Kim Sterenly, Limbaj si realitate. O introducere in filosofia limbajului, Iasi, Editura Polirom, 2000, p.252.
  18. Alvin Goldman, quoted in Andrzej Gasiorek, op. cit., p 16.
  19. Paul Ricoeur, The Reality of the Historical Past, Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 1984, p. 34.
  20. Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989, p 156.
  21. Graham Swift, Waterland, New York, Poseidon Press, 1983, p. 56.
  22. Cf. Alison Lee, Pamela Cooper, Robert K. Irish, as quoted below. Graham Swift, op. cit., p. 201. Thomas Carlyle, quoted in Andrzej Gasiorek, op. cit., p. 150.
  23. Ibidem, pp. 150-1.
  24. Ibidem, p. 151
  25. Graham Swift, op. cit., p. 189.
  26. Ibidem, p. 196.
  27. Andrzej Gasiorek, op. cit., p. 152.
  28. Alison Lee, Realism and Power. Postmodern British Fiction, London and New York, Routledge, 1990, p. 40.
  29. Pamela Cooper, “Imperial Topographies: the Spaces of History in Waterland”, in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 42, Issue 2, 1992, p. 371. Graham Swift, op. cit., p. 53.
  30. Ronald H. McKinney, “The Greening of Postmodernism: Graham Swift's Waterland”, in New Lierary History, Vol. 28, Issue 4, 1997, p. 822.
  31. Graham Swift, op. cit., p. 112.
  32. Ibidem, p. 97.
  33. Ibidem, p. 156
  34. Andrzej Gasiorek, op. cit., p. 157.
  35. Ibidem, pp.154-5.
  36. Pamela Cooper, op. cit., p. 374.
  37. Graham Swift, op. cit., p. 223.
  38. Ibidem, p. 241.
  39. Nikolai Berdiaev, Sensul istoriei, Iasi, Polirom, 1996, p.50 [tr.a.].
  40. Ibidem, p.51.
  41. Graham Swift, op.cit., p.4.
  42. Ibidem, p.3.
  43. Robert K. Irish, “Let me tell you: About Desire and Narrativity in Graham Swift's Waterland”, in Modern Fiction Studies Vol. 44, no. 4, 1998, p. 930. Graham Swift, op. cit., p.150.
  44. Graham Swift, op. cit., p.150. Ibidem, p.160.
  45. Ibidem, p.134.
  46. Ibidem, p.201
  47. Ibidem, p.155
  48. Ibidem, p.176.
  49. Ibidem,p. 214.
  50. Ibidem, p.181.
  51. Ibidem, p. 211.
  52. Ibidem, p.213.
  53. Ibidem, p.200.
  54. Ibidem, p.254.
  55. Ibidem, p. 156.
  56. Ibidem, p.131.

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