“ No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel ”

1. “No End of History: Evidence from the Contemporary English Novel” By Del Ivan Janik Twentieth Century Literature 41.2 (Summer 1995): 160-89. Based on EBSCOhost online journal article Presented by Sarita Chuang

2. Introduction p.1 • According to Baudrillard, Fukuyama, and Jameson, we are at or beyond the “end of history”: there stands before or about us only a perpetual present: a world defined only spatially, no longer in terms of development through time. • Literary postmodernism: a product of the “end of history”– “the past as referent has been effaced, time has been textualized, leaving only representations, texts, pseudo-events, images without originals: a spatial, rather than temporal, order of simulacra (David Bennet 262)

3. Authors and Books Discussed p.1 • Possession A. S. Byatt • The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro • Flaubert’s Parrot Julian Barnes • Hawksmoor, Chatterton, First Light, & English Music Peter Ackroyd • Waterland, Shuttlecock, Out of This World, & Ever After Graham Swift

4. David Lodge’s definition of three types of 20th fiction writing p. 2 • Modernism with its notion of art as an autonomous activity • Antimodernist realism with its insistence on the priority of meaning over language (The Remains of the Day) • Postmodernism, which implies that “whatever meaningful patterns we discern in [fiction] are wholly illusory (5-6, 12) (Flaubert’s Parrot) * The works of Ackroyd, Byatt, and Swift seem to transcend Lodge’s rubrics.

5. PossessionA. S. Byatt pp. 3-4 • a distinction between between proper (positive, life-enhancing) & improper (objectifying, life-denying) attitudes toward the past. • Those who seek to possess power, place, property, & the past  villains Those who allow themselves to be possessed by curiosity, the desire for understanding, history, & love are rewarded richly in unexpected ways. • The possession by the force of the past enables Roland to rediscover, redefine, and remake himself, and to begin to take possession of his own life. • Maud’s transformation is brought about by the revelation of the “end of history” of Ash and LaMotte. Like Roland, she has entered history by recognizing & acknowledging her continuity with others, past and present.

6. The Remains of the DayKazuo Ishiguropp. 4-5 • Historical events (secret negotiations over the fate of Europe between the World Wars) • Historical figures (Ribbentrop & Oswald Mosley) & fictional figures (Unity Mitford & the Duke of Windsor, the butler Stevens) • Stevens is determined to demonstrate that the outstanding characteristic of a great butler is his “dignity”, which he defines by an embodiment of impersonality. (using dignity to dodge true responsibility) • Through Stevens, Ishiguro reminds us that public as well as private history is no more than the summing up of such actions & omissions.

7. Flaubert’s ParrotJulian Barnes pp. 5-6 • Geoffrey Braithwaite, the narrator: “It is not just the life that we know … It is also the life that was not led” (Barnes 121) • The past is radically unknowable, and history, as Possession also demonstrates, is multiple and provisional. • Braithwaite’s obsession & pursuit of Flaubert’s history ↔ a diversion from the history of his own marriage

8. HawksmoorPeter Ackroydp.7 • The double narrative structure: 18th century architect Nicholas Dyer v.s. 20th century police detective Hawksmoor • Ackroyd presents history and its intersections with the present as a series of such Mystery lessons. • Byatt’s, Ishiguro’s and Barnes’ characters pursue knowledge of the past intentionally or involuntarily, Hawksmoor finds himself pursued and ultimately overtaken by history.

9. Peter Ackroyd’s Three Other Novels pp. 7-9 • Chatterton – portrayal of the multiple intersections of past and present. • First Light – continuity: the connectedness of human fear, need, and effort across the centuries. • English Music – the idea of being “trapped in time,” defined by one’s limited vision of the past.

10. WaterlandGraham Swift pp. 9-12 • Historia: 1. inquiry, investigation, learning 2. a) a narrative of past events, history b) any kind of narrative: account, tale, story. • Tom Crick’s attempt to transcend the individual and collective past by telling stories about them. • History is a construct, a human creation that intensifies experience  Histrionics (theatrical arts or performances) • double ending

11. Swift’s Three Other Novels pp. 10, 12-14 • Shuttlecock – The process of examining one’s relation to the past is shown to be more important than any particular facts one might uncover. • Out of This World – To reach an understanding of the moment, one must attempt to understand its context. (involvement & imagination demanded by narrative) • Ever After – resembles Possession in its juxtaposition of invented documents from the Victorian era.

12. Conclusion p.14 • At the center of each novel is the nature of the relation of the individual to the past & how the pursuit of order that is implied in the word “history” can mediate that relation. • Taken together they refute the notion that “history … is about to end”. • Historical truth is hopelessly elusive, yet the process of historical exploration leads to a confrontation with inner reality that may be painful but can also be liberating and transforming.