An Analysis of The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende as a Historiographic Metafiction

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 assistant prof. of Literature, Golestan University

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran.

3 Ph. D Candidate in English literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran

Abstract

Historiographic metafiction, as one of the postmodern writing styles, reminds the readers of its being fictional as it does not claim of any representation of reality and thus it challenges the historical truth. In fact it presents history in a slightly different manner than how it actually happened or conceived. Linda Hutcheon, the Canadian critic, as one of the most significant postmodern theoreticians, defined hysterographic metafiction as works which use historical background while having some postmodern techniques. This study applies her theory to The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. Using techniques such as intertextuality, parody and irony, Allende has rewritten turbulent Chilean history in the twentieth century and especially the events before, during and after President Salvador Allende’s time in office and the 1973 coup. Meanwhile she casts a doubt on the truth of some historical events, which establishes the work as a historiographic metafiction rather than a purely magic realistic text.

Keywords

References

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Critical Language and Literary studies
Volume 19, Issue 29
March 2023
Pages 249-274

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