HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION

What is Historiography?

•Refers to the practice of

writing history
 What is metafiction?

• Refers to a fiction in which

the author self-consciously
alludes to the artificiality of
a work
• Departs from the novelistic
conventions
 What is historiographic metafiction?
• Coined by Linda Hutcheon in her essay
entitled, Beginning to theorize the
Postmodern, in 1987.
• those well-known and popular novels which
are both intensely self-reflexive and yet
paradoxically also lay claim to historical events
and personages
 A Low Art
• Written by Margaret Atwood
• EXCERPT from THE PENELOPIAD
• It is part of a retelling of The Odyssey from the
perspective of Penelope
• It reveals gender stereotypes found in the
masterpiece of Homer
 Summary of Low Art
• The story opens with Penelope saying now
that I am dead, I know everything (despite
knowing everything she prefers not to know
the things she learned)
• Penelope described the afterlife stating that
the underworld is full of sacks. (she claims
that her sack is filled with words about her
husband)
 Summary of Low Art
• Penelope thinks Odysseus was always so
plausible (she admits believing him often)
• Storytellers consider her the model of a
faithful wife (Penelope wanted to scream and
tell other women to be not like her)
• Penelope admits Odysseus was tricky but
pretended not to see that side of him (she
kept her doubts because she wanted a happy
ending
 Summary of Low Art
• Penelope realizes that lots of people mock her
in secret (they tell stories about her but she
does not want to be called guilty if she denies
them)
• Penelope wants to scream at other women
and tell them to not follow her example but
she sounds like an owl (she wants to warn
other women but it is not too firm)
 Analysis of A Low Art
• There is afterlife based on an Ancient Greek
religious view
• The sack full of words can determine and
shape the identity of someone
• Penelope believes that the official version of
Odyssey flattened her character into a means
of controlling women
 Analysis of A Low Art

• Penelope describes
storytelling a low art. Low
art forms are often
associated with women
and femininity.
Why HISTORY and not HERSTORY?
• The his in history has nothing to do
with the English possessive pronoun
his
• There is no gender angle here, the
root word is from Ancient Greek –
histor meaning inquiry
• History, after all, is a collection of
stories, factual or otherwise