绪论

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 The Postmodern Challenge to Historiography

1.2 Historiographic Metafiction： A Postmodern Genre

1.3 A Working Definition of “Political Engagement” in Literature

1.4 Literature Review

Chapter Two Historiographic Metafiction： Reuniting the Aesthetic with the Political

2.1 Historiographic Metafiction versus Metafiction

2.2 Historiographic Metafiction， the Historical Novel， and the Non-fictional Novel

2.3 The Paradoxes of Historiographic Metafiction

2.3.1 Historicity and Discursiveness

2.3.2 Referentiality and Metafictionality

2.4 Reuniting the Aesthetic with the Political

2.4.1 The Apolitical Stance of High Modernism and New Avant-Garde

2.4.2 From Political Apathy to Political Engagement： Change of Dominant

Chapter Three E.L.Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel：Putting America on Trial

3.1 Daniel Writing His Own Book as the Heir of the “Atomic Spies”

3.2 Traumatizing the Survivals and Putting America on Trial

3.3 From the Old Left Communists to the New Left Students

Chapter Four Robert Coover’s The Public Burning： Staging the Miscarriage of Justice

4.1 Nixon Recounting His Independent Investigation of the Rosenberg Case

4.2 Creating a Carnival of Shame and Staging the Miscarriage of Justice

4.3 From Cold War Paranoia to the Watergate Scandal

Chapter Five Don DeLillo’s Libra： Refuting the “Official Truth”

5.1 Nicholas Branch Composing His Secret History of the Assassination

5.2 Refuting the Official Narrative and Revealing the Alternative Truth

5.3 From the Kennedy Assassination to the Iran-Contra Affair

Chapter Six Conclusion

Works Cited

Appendices

Appendix Ⅰ：Dwelling in the Ambiguity of History： An Interview with E.L.Doctorow

Appendix Ⅱ：Getting inside the Stories： An Interview with Robert Coover

Appendix Ⅲ：Keeping Fiction Alive： An Interview with Don DeLillo