Book contents
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 13 - History and Metahistory
from Part I - Times and Places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Chapter 1 Biography
- Chapter 2 Letters and Juvenilia
- Chapter 3 Nonfiction
- Chapter 4 East Coast
- Chapter 5 West Coast
- Chapter 6 Europe and Asia
- Chapter 7 Africa and Latin America
- Chapter 8 Geographies and Mapping
- Chapter 9 The Eighteenth Century
- Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century
- Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century
- Chapter 12 The Twenty-First Century
- Chapter 13 History and Metahistory
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
For many centuries, much of Western humanity subscribed to the precept: “History is nothing but the demonstration of Christian truth.” But that conviction gradually gave way to secular dreams both positive and negative – history as a great march toward some omega point of political and social justice or, as Orwell surmised, toward some definitive form of totalitarian control. At the end of the twentieth century, Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis was widely misunderstood as augury of a more or less literal apotheosis. None of these dreams has assuaged what Mircea Eliade, at mid-century, called the “terror of history,” the recognition of time present and time past as merely complementary forms of aimlessness.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thomas Pynchon in Context , pp. 104 - 112Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019