Fact and Fiction in the Contemporary American Historical Novel: The Case of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to study the way in which fact and fiction converge and diverge in Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and how historical facts are represented by the author in her fictional work. This research focuses on the historical and multigenerational saga of Sunja’s family and the events surrounding them in the novel. It views their historical experience from the perspective of the main characters. Hence, this study tries to trace how their perspectives of history change through the different periods of time and generations. It tries to analyse where fact and fiction meet and differ by extracting historical facts portrayed in the novel from the perspective of the characters, comparing them with real events and separating what is real and what is fictional. This could be achieved through applying the New Historicist approach which is concerned with studying a literary text with relation to its time, place, and historical circumstances in addition to Historiography as well as the postmodern concept of “Historiographic Metafiction” by Linda Hutcheon. This research reveals that historical facts in Pachinko are referred to without any modifications and they intersect with the personal experiences of the novel’s fictional characters. This shows that the demarcation line between fact and fiction in the novel is blurred.