a fundamental study of "histiriographic metafiction", and "literary genres", as introduced in "new historical philosophy", and tracing them in the works of julian barnes.

abstract a fundamental study of “historio-graphic metafiction” and “literary genres”, as introduced in “new historical philosophy”, and tracing them in the works of julian barnes having studied the two novels, the porcupine and arthur & george, by julian barnes, the researcher has applied linda hutcheon’s historio-graphic metafictional theories to them. the thesis is divided into five chapters. in chapter one, the researcher provides the readers with some essential introductory concepts concerning linda hutcheon’s theories, as she is an expert in the historio-graphic metafictional concepts and the critical arguments. besides, there are important key terms which are defined as the fundamental elements in the first chapter. the notions of self-consciousness, self-reflexiveness, parody, intertextuality, and historical representations and their consequent effects in the historio-graphic metafictional literature, which are demonstrated in julian barnes’s works, are recurrent in the second chapter. chapter three investigates the ambivalent and indeterminate history as the most important part of the historio-graphic metafictional process. ambivalence and indeterminacy of history are apparent in julian barnes’s works. moreover, the concepts of real and unreal truth are paralleled to analyze the objective and subjective knowledge as discussed in the previous chapters. chapter four considers again multiple truths and lies; also, the existence of reality and imagery in the texts and inter-texts with their own historical contextualities and inter-contextualities in the literary mode. indeed, they fight and challenge each other in order to show the final and absolute real truth to the readers, as they sometimes overlap each other simultaneously and their borderline cannot be seen as clearly as possible. they have the coincident status in which the reader gets confused and may not find the fine line between the real and imaginary situations. consequently, the reader is certainly under huge psychological, intellectual, mental, and judicial pressures. thus, in the final chapter, the researcher tries to manifest the accurate and proper boundary between reality and imagery in their objective and subjective circumstances as clear as possible. that is why, in the postmodern literature, the whole truth and history are defined as subjective, but, it is not true. the researcher believes the reality can be seen either in the real objective world or in the real subjective world. the objectivity and subjectivity are not necessarily untrue or lies; but, they are defined as the pure reality or realities which are supplementary both on the materialistic and spiritualistic levels. the researcher acknowledges the two objective and subjective worlds should come together in a parallel mode and bring the real truth which has been discovered between the real and imaginary or fictional situations.