A Note on Abbreviations 1
Introduction 1
Chapter One Questioning the Traditional Historical Narrative:Epistemological Uncertainty 19
Ⅰ．"What Really Happened?":Faustian Pursuit of the Historical Truth 21
ⅰ．Pursuing"the Whole Truth"in Shuttlecock 22
ⅱ．Pursuing"the Full Story"in EverAfter 26
Ⅱ．Unreliable Narrators 30
ⅰ Narrators in Self-Reflexivity 31
ⅱ．Narrators in"Mise-en-abyme" 35
Ⅲ．Questioning Epistemological Certainty：Anti-Detective Fiction 40
ⅰ．Detective Fiction and Anti-Detective Fiction 41
ⅱ．Elusive Mystery:Epistemological Quests in Detective Fiction 45
ⅲ．Fact or Fiction:Epistemological Uncertainty in Anti-Detective Fiction 47
Chapter Two Deconstructing Grand Narrative and Narrating"Simulated"History 54
Ⅰ．Deconstruction of Grand Narrative in Waterland 56
ⅰ．Language Dilemma:Deconstruction of Linguistic Representation 56
ⅱ．Causality Failure:Deconstruction of Rational Development of History 62
ⅲ．"It Loops":Deconstruction of Linear Development of History 65
ⅳ．"The End of History":Deconstruction of Historical Teleology 70
Ⅱ．"Simulated"History in Out of This World 73
ⅰ．What Is"Simulation"? 75
ⅱ．"Counterfeit"History:Paradox of Photographic Representation 77
ⅲ．"Simulated"History in Photographs and Television 83
ⅳ．"Simulated"History in the Real World 90
Chapter Three Constructing Textualized History:Merging Historical Narrative and Literary Narrative 96
Ⅰ．History and Story 98
ⅰ．"Historia,any kind of narrative:account,tale,story" 98
ⅱ．Crime Story and Historical Analysis 101
ⅲ．Fairy-tales,Superstitions and Rumors as History 104
Ⅱ．Historiographic Metafiction 111
ⅰ．Historiographic Metafiction versus Metafiction 111
ⅱ．"Genuine Historicity"and"Textualized Historicity" 116
Ⅲ．Intertextualized History 120
ⅰ．Intertextual References to Faulkner's Works in Waterland 121
ⅱ．Echoes of Shakespeare's Plays in Ever After 124
ⅲ．A Palimpsestic Refashioning of the"Journey"Theme in Last Orders 129
Chapter Four Returning to"History in Mind":The Significance of Narratives 134
Ⅰ．Historical Interpretation and Discursive Power in Shuttlecock 136
ⅰ．Desire for Power:A Natural Human Need 137
ⅱ．Discursive Empowerment via War Memoir 140
Ⅱ．Historical Interpretation and Self-Identification in Ever After 144
ⅰ．Ancestor's History Re-Constructed in Bill's Mind 145
ⅱ．Awakening Through an Ancestor's Journal:Self-Identification 147
Ⅲ．Historical Narratives and Meaning-Making in Waterland 151
ⅰ．Narratives:The Way to Ward off"Nothingness" 152
ⅱ．"Man the Animal Who Craves for Meaning" 156
Ⅳ．Historical Narratives and Spiritual Sublimation in Last Orders 160
ⅰ．A Journey Between the Past and the Present 160
ⅱ．A Journey of Spiritual Sublimation 164
Conclusion 170
Works Cited 176
Acknowledgements 185