“Superhistory” and the “Spirit of Transgression”: E. L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel
Resource
NTU Studies in Language and Literature, 15, 041-061
Journal
NTU Studies in Language and Literature
Journal Issue
15
Pages
041-061
Date Issued
2006-06
Date
2006-06
Author(s)
Chang, K.
Abstract
The Book of Daniel, E. L. Doctorow’s first widely-acclaimed novel, is a fictional exploration of the controversial case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were wrongfully executed for treason by the Truman Administration during the Red Menace of the 1950s. The novel demonstrates not only Doctorow’s strong aversion to social injustice---one of the themes that run through all his work---but also the novelist’s successful experiment in fictionalizing a historical event. Historical actuality and imaginary episodes are deftly woven together into a literary construct. To Doctorow, official history is to a certain extent fictionalized, and fiction can be a “superhistory” in which a writer may amass available historical data, reconstruct them in an intricate configuration, and thus offer dialectical perspectives on sociopolitical realities. A writer, as it were, is a “perceptive criminal”---a criminal who opens himself to perception, is sensitive to the life of the downtrodden, and possesses “a spirit of transgression” to facilitate social change.
Subjects
超級歷史
正史
虛擬
睿智的罪犯
逾越的意識
受壓迫者的歷史
Superhistory
Official history
Simulation
Perceptivn criminal
Spirit of transgression
History of the oppressed
SDGs
Type
journal article
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