Interrogating Power Structures: A Humanities-Based Study of Social Injustice in Doctorow’s Fiction

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to E.L. Doctorow’s historiographic metafiction through humanities lens of critical analysis of power relations and social inequality. Although earlier studies have evaluated at the techniques that Doctorow has used in his writing, this paper aims at pointing out that his historical novels, Ragtime, The Book of Daniel and The March disrupt hegemonic historical narratives and amplify marginalized voices. Analyzing Doctorow’s novels to Marxist literary criticism and Foucauldian theory of power discourse analysis, the study reveals how the author deconstructs the divide between reality and fiction in order to show the systemic oppression. It can therefore be argued that besides giving an account of injustice in the past, Doctorow’s historical revisionism does point to the present thereby reaffirming the role of literature as a critical intervention in the reconstruction of history and codification of justice.