A New Historical Study Of The Sense Of An Ending

Julian Barnes(1946-),a modern and contemporary British writer,is regarded as one of the “Three Giants of Contemporary British Literature.” In 2011,he was awarded the Man Booker Prize with his masterpiece The Sense of an Ending,by right of portraying the ordinary individual Tony Webster’s personal history from two parts of his youth and old age.Based on the core concept of “textuality of history” and“historicity of text,” the thesis explores Julian Barnes’ s new historical view from the perspective of New Historicism.From the aspects of text and narrative,the thesis explores the “textuality of history” to reveal Julian Barnes’ s historical consciousness of subversion.Through analyzing the inadequate textual documents,subjective perspective of narrative,contradictory discourse of narrative and distorted events,the subjective construction of history and the unreliability of historical narrative are revealed to further explore Julian Barnes’ s subversion to the authenticity and objectivity of authoritative history.Then from the aspects of the history reflected and history shaped in the novel,the thesis explores the “historicity of text” to reveal Julian Barnes’ s other historical consciousness of containment and reconstruction.According to the history reflected in The Sense of an Ending,the conservative social characteristics in sixties including the isolated gender relationship and repressed sex both reflect a kind of containment of history by Julian Barnes.Besides,according to the history shaped in The Sense of an Ending,it reflects Julian Barnes’ s historical ideology of reconstruction through Tony Webster’s personal anecdotes of individual histories,and Tony’s self-refashioning.