A History Of The World In 101/1 Analysis

Transformation of the Idea of History in A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters
The usual understanding of history as a phenomenon is mostly abstract. Some people would define history as a consequence of dates when great battles took place and Monarchs finished their reigns with mysterious deaths. The history of the world is usually narrowed to numbers, names, toponyms and – what is significant – books. Not only textbooks on history, but literature itself represents history through words and pages. Sometimes this narrow of the concept is enhanced creating a strong stereotype of history. However, there are books that demolish this veil of abstraction around history and suggest a new and altered idea of it. For example, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy or 11.22.63 by Stephen King had a massive effect on literature and people’s perception of history. Though there is one special book blowing one’s mind and suggesting a new interpretation of
Julian Barnes destroys this expectation by placing the chapters in random order. If the first chapter focuses on the biblical events, then the second chapter, The Visitors, shows late twentieth century and describes a terroristic attack on a cruise liner. Reader's journey continues in a church of 1520 when an ecclesiastical court began a trial against woodworms. A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters does not follow the established classical canon of chronological storytelling. More than that, to create a history of the whole world Julian Barnes chose not the historical events, which would be recognizable by everyone, but the events of usual people, whose names would be forgotten by historians and ordinary people. This fact can be interpreted as an idea of history as a result of an unwittingly combined action of all people throughout the globe. Julian Barnes vanquishes the ideology of those in power who create