E.L.Doctorow
'Novelists might be dealing only with imaginary events whereas historians are dealing with real ones, but the process of fusing events, whether imaginary or real, into a comprehensible totality capable of serving as the object of a representation is a poetic process.' (White1978:125) In his piece The Fictions of Factual Representation, from which this quote is taken, White argues that there is in fact little difference between the structure of history writing and the novel, that they are both essentially narrative in form. E.L Doctorow's novel, The Book of Daniel, makes the distinction between history and fiction even more difficult to define. Doctorow's fictional strategies in this novel demonstrate a great deal about late modernist/early postmodernist attitudes to history. I will illustrate this through a thorough examination of this work.The Book of Daniel is a fictional account of the Rosenberg case which took place in the 1950's in America. My use of the word fictional here becomes problematic though when the actual case and the novel are examined in relation to each other, as the lines between fact and fiction become increasingly blurred, to the point where the reader can no longer distinguish between the two. On t
Doctorow's first reference to the patterns of history occurs on page 13 where Daniel considers that Robert Lewin may have realised that, '. When Daniel visits his mother in prison he talks about her seeming ill, he says, 'It was as if she was a patient in this place rather than a prisoner. htm) On page 148 of the novel, Paul's sister, Frieda is complaining about having to take the children in for a while. Throughout this account he states, 'Many historians have noted an interesting phenomenon,' ' Many historians have noted this phenomenon,' 'This is a phenomenon noted by many historians,' 'Many historians have noted this phenomenon. This patter is eluded to on page 73 where Daniel describes a medical textbook drawing of his grandmother, mother and sister in which a, '. (Doctorow:66) Although she passed away by the time of the executions, the stories of Paul and Rochelle/Julius and Ethel's parents were also never told. had thick hair that tended to curl and she liked to keep it short. He jumps from past to present constantly, and without any warning, and moves from first person to third person narrative, making Daniel both the author and the subject. On page 54 we find an insert about Bukharin's defense at his trial.
Common topics in this essay:
Paul Rochelle,
Doctorow23-25 Doctorow,
Reopen Rosenberg,
Daniel Susan's,
Dr Mindish,
Historic Metafiction,
Daniel Doctorow,
Artie Sternlight,
Book Daniel,
Aunt Frieda's,
paul rochelle,
late modernist/early,
throughout novel,
modernist/early postmodernist,
late modernist/early postmodernist,
rochelle isaacson,
historians noted phenomenon',
adoptive parents,
attitudes history,
i'm innocent,
postmodernist attitudes,
postmodernist attitudes history,
modernist/early postmodernist attitudes,
book daniel,
found throughout novel,
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Acceptance Essays
