ABSTRACT
As we saw in chapter 1, the particular circumstances of the contemporary period have had a profound effect on writers’ approaches to the framing of history. In the case of authors as various as Umberto Eco and Ian McEwan, the history of modern Europe is deeply problematic, no longer providing the assurance it did to a previous generation. For African writers like Ngugi wa Thiong’o, independence struggles and the decline of European colonialism have brought with them a whole raft of reassessments about the nature of historical, political and cultural development. In the United States, as we can see with both Maxine Hong Kingston and Toni Morrison, questions arise about collective amnesia, and the coercions and silences underlying the myth of America.
