Commingling of History and Fiction in Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters

Abstract

This paper intends to explore the relationship between history and fiction in the novel AHistory of the World in 10 1⁄2 Chapters (1989) by the British writer Julian Barnes in order to indicate how these two notions have been commingled in different periods. In this regard, the focus of the current study is to investigate the above-mentioned novel, and to demonstrate the invalidity of historical records, their subjectivity, and how throughout history myths have become realities, with an eye on New Historicism. By the end of this study, its reader’s attitude towards history and what s/he is presented with as fact and truth is hoped to change, not to readily accept historical records and stories as absolute truths, rather to consider them one possible history among many others that might have been marginalized and suppressed by a dominant ideology.