DEATH OF “THE” HISTORY: ALTERNATIVE AND PARTIAL (HI)STORIES IN JULIAN BARNES’S A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 101/2 CHAPTERS AND SALMAN RUSHDIE’S MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN

Whose perspective, whose truth, whose version of history can survive? Postmodern historiographic metafiction challenges the authority of the truth by highlighting alternative or small partial histories that have been neglected, ignored, untold, forgotten, bypassed, distorted, hidden, changed, omitted, eliminated, and eradicated. In this respect, history cannot be described as one concrete formulation or as a stable history but a collection of fragmented multiple histories. Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters (1989) and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1980) both deal with the historical facts, one in a playful and the other in a magical way, questioning what would happen if “the” history is rewritten by the other, ex-centric, excluded, unseen, unclean, abnormal, the victim or the ordinary people whose personal stories shape and deconstruct “the” history. What Barnes and Rushdie offer is “a” history of the world rather than the totalizing nature of “the” history of the world, demonstrating many possible partial histories and personal (hi)stories or (her)stories interrelated to the grand history or national history. This article examines how Barnes and Rushdie portrays an alternative historical rewriting by blurring the line between the factual and fictional history that makes readers question the assumptions about the objectivity and truthiness of history

“Tekil” Tarihin Ölümü: Julian Barnes’ın On Buçuk Bölümde Dünya Tarihi ve Salman Rushdie’nin Geceyarısı Çocukları Romanlarında Alternatif ve Taraflı Er-Tarih/Öyküler

Kimin bakış açısı, kimin hakikati, kimin tarih versiyonu ayakta kalabilir? Postmodern tarihyazımsal üstkurgu, ihmal edilmiş, göz ardı edilmiş, anlatılmamış, unutulmuş, atlanmış, çarpıtılmış, gizlenmiş, değiştirilmiş, atlanmış, ortadan kaldırılmış ve silinmiş alternatif veya küçük taraflı tarihleri vurgulayarak gerçeğin otoritesine meydan okur. Bu bakımdan tarih, tek bir somut formülasyon ya da istikrarlı bir tarih olarak değil, parçalanmış çoklu tarihlerin bir koleksiyonu olarak tanımlanabilir. Julian Barnes'ın On Kimin bakış açısı, kimin hakikati, kimin tarih versiyonu ayakta kalabilir? Postmodern tarihyazımsal üstkurgu, ihmal edilmiş, göz ardı edilmiş, anlatılmamış, unutulmuş, atlanmış, çarpıtılmış, gizlenmiş, değiştirilmiş, atlanmış, ortadan kaldırılmış ve silinmiş alternatif veya küçük taraflı tarihleri vurgulayarak gerçeğin otoritesine meydan okur. Bu bakımdan tarih, tek bir somut formülasyon ya da istikrarlı bir tarih olarak değil, parçalanmış çoklu tarihlerin bir koleksiyonu olarak tanımlanabilir. Julian Barnes'ın On

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