Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past
Graham Swift's novel Waterland (1983) is about Thomas Crick, a history teacher. In his history lessons, Thomas Crick merges public history with his private history as well as local history of Fenlands where he lives, to face and to solve the mysteries of his past. Thus, by intermingling public,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ankara University
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dtcfdergisi.ankara.edu.tr/index.php/dtcf/article/view/1969 |
| _version_ | 1797421063163871232 |
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| author | Duygu SERDAROĞLU |
| author_facet | Duygu SERDAROĞLU |
| author_sort | Duygu SERDAROĞLU |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Graham Swift's novel Waterland (1983) is about Thomas Crick, a history teacher. In his history lessons, Thomas Crick merges public history with his private history as well as local history of Fenlands where he lives, to face and to solve the mysteries of his past. Thus, by intermingling public, private and local histories, he erases all the boundaries between them and hence gives a different understanding/representation of history and also his history lessons become a journey to his past/history within public and local histories although the only reason for him to do so is to give less boring history lessons. In that sense, the novel meets on the same ground with the New Historicism, ourished in the mid-1980s as a “new” approach which challenges the traditional understanding of history as a grand-narrative and which focuses on how history is represented rather than what it represents. This article aims to analyze the novel Waterland which deconstructs and reconstructs the notion of history by focusing on the concepts of memory and time, and thus to elucidate how the novel challenges the traditional appreciation of history as a grand narrative by merging public, local and private histories with multiple representations of history. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:11:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-92b8e126e26f4fb8bb6449836ee0d63b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2459-0150 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:11:31Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | Ankara University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi |
| spelling | doaj.art-92b8e126e26f4fb8bb6449836ee0d63b2023-12-03T09:04:04ZengAnkara UniversityAnkara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi2459-01502017-12-015722890Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the PastDuygu SERDAROĞLU0TOBB ETU. duyguserdaroglu@yahoo.comGraham Swift's novel Waterland (1983) is about Thomas Crick, a history teacher. In his history lessons, Thomas Crick merges public history with his private history as well as local history of Fenlands where he lives, to face and to solve the mysteries of his past. Thus, by intermingling public, private and local histories, he erases all the boundaries between them and hence gives a different understanding/representation of history and also his history lessons become a journey to his past/history within public and local histories although the only reason for him to do so is to give less boring history lessons. In that sense, the novel meets on the same ground with the New Historicism, ourished in the mid-1980s as a “new” approach which challenges the traditional understanding of history as a grand-narrative and which focuses on how history is represented rather than what it represents. This article aims to analyze the novel Waterland which deconstructs and reconstructs the notion of history by focusing on the concepts of memory and time, and thus to elucidate how the novel challenges the traditional appreciation of history as a grand narrative by merging public, local and private histories with multiple representations of history.http://dtcfdergisi.ankara.edu.tr/index.php/dtcf/article/view/1969New HistoricismRepresentation(s) of HistoryHistoricizing the textTextualizing HistoryMemoryGraham SwiftWaterland |
| spellingShingle | Duygu SERDAROĞLU Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi New Historicism Representation(s) of History Historicizing the text Textualizing History Memory Graham Swift Waterland |
| title | Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past |
| title_full | Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past |
| title_fullStr | Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past |
| title_full_unstemmed | Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past |
| title_short | Waterland: (Re)Textualizing Histories and Historicizing the Past |
| title_sort | waterland re textualizing histories and historicizing the past |
| topic | New Historicism Representation(s) of History Historicizing the text Textualizing History Memory Graham Swift Waterland |
| url | http://dtcfdergisi.ankara.edu.tr/index.php/dtcf/article/view/1969 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT duyguserdaroglu waterlandretextualizinghistoriesandhistoricizingthepast |