The end of history in English historiographic metafiction

The main task in this thesis is to define the relationship between the philosophical concept of “the end of history” and postmodernist understanding and critique of history in English “historiographic metafiction”. I consider the end of history both as an important feature of postmodern culture and a suitable topic through which contemporary fiction can be analysed. I refer to Alexandre Kojève’s reading of Hegelian dialectics and to Francis Fukuyama’s optimistic interpretation of the end of history in order to introduce the philosophical debate on the end of history and explain the context within which postmodern novelists write. The novelists I examine jettison the end of history thesis as a metanarrative and produce critical histories through postmodernist modes of representation. I dwell particularly on twelve novels and their different ways to represent history and its end.