Title: The Evolution of Historical Perspective in Julian Barnes’s Novels

Abstract: As one of the most significant contemporary novelists in British literature, Julian Barnes’s fictional works epitomize the historical turn in 1990s British fiction. His profound engagement with language, literature, and philosophy has fostered a heightened historical consciousness and acute sensitivity to literary criticism, through which he actively engages with Postmodern historical perspective and New Historicism. From Flaubert’s Parrot to A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and culminating in The Sense of an Ending, Barnes’s historical perspective demonstrates a discernible transition from postmodern experimentation to traditional narrative modes. This evolution not only mirrors the shifting sociopolitical landscape and evolving national consciousness in Britain, but more fundamentally reveals the author’s enduring concern for the human condition across temporal dimensions.

Keywords: Julian Barnes, Postmodern historical perspective, Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, The Sense of an Ending

Author: Yifan Meng, College of Foreign Languages, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.02.005