Critique of Novel/ Postmodern Cleopatra: Postmodernist Critique of the Late Cleopatra and Satan's Night, Ashraf Seraj

Historiographic metafiction and the decline of metanarrative are two important features in postmodernist stories. Writers of historiographic metafiction use historical structures such as real historical personalities and events but engage in deliberate interference so as to make the reader hesitate on deciding whether the story is based on reality or not. Postmodernists in this way draw the reader's attention to the fact that past events are unrealistic, distorted, and fictional narratives. Highlighting the crisis and decline of metanarratives is another characteristic of postmodernism, which points to the collapse of pre-existing fixed concepts. The decline of metanarratives has led to skepticism about generalizations and relativism. The postmodern view does not believe in the existence of universal truth, and instead of reiterating the continuity of existing or current patterns, it is multifaceted in nature. In the postmodern era, meta-narratives have replaced micro-narratives. In this research, we will examine the historiographic metafiction and the decline of metanarratives in two short stories, the Late Cleopatra and Satan's Night by Shiva Moghanloo.