Text, Truth, and Theory: Rethinking History through Postmodern and Post-Structuralist Lenses

Abstract

This paper aims to deconstruct the claim that postmodern narrative lacks historical truth by challenging the assumption that history no longer retains its representational authority. Drawing on Linda Hutcheon's concept of historiographic metafiction, the study argues that postmodern historical fiction remains deeply engaged with history, though it reconfigures historical truth as a discursive and textual construction rather than a transparent mirror of the past. Through the theoretical frameworks of post-structuralism and historical skepticism, particularly the works of Hutcheon, Edward Said, and Hayden White, I argue that postmodern fiction does not abandon history but interrogates the conditions under which it is constructed, represented and legitimized. Rather than being ahistorical, postmodern historical fiction critically examines the processes of narrativity that shape historical understanding. Hutcheon emphasizes that texts are never severed from their historical and material referents, and postmodern fiction highlights this embeddedness by drawing attention to its own narrative strategies. I draw on Toni Morrison's Beloved as a case study of postmodern historical fiction that challenges conventional historiography. Morrison's work exemplifies how fiction can recover silenced voices and reconstruct forgotten histories, presenting history as a site of struggle rather than a settled truth. Ultimately, postmodern fiction does not retreat from history but instead foregrounds its complexities and contradictions. In an age marked by post-truth and historical revisionism, such fiction offers vital insights into the contested nature of historical knowledge and the ongoing need to question how the past is narrated.