Представлено теорію жанру історичного роману доби постмодернізму у перспективі сучасних українських досліджень, здійснених упродовж останніх двох десятиліть. Виділено ряд атрибутивних рис постмодерністського історичного роману та способів моделювання історії в сучасній художній прозі
The article examines the recent theory on historical novel in postmodernist literature as presented in the scholarships of Ukrainian literary critics. The article sums up the features attributive to this genre as well as the peculiar modes of operating history in postmodernist fiction. Scientific interest in the methods of modeling history in literature is common for the contemporary literary studies. This is due to the fact that the actualization of history in literature undergoes gradual modifications, which require analysis and appropriate conceptualization. The parameters of the classical historic novel of the Walter-Scottish type, which had been formed during the Romantic era, were changed in the modernist literature and further influenced by the postmodern tendencies of deconstruction of the genre, irony, parody, pastiche etc. We may conclude that the postmodernist historical novel is characterized by experimentation and reorientation from detailed reflectio&n of significant historical events and well-known characters to the aspects that are less meaningful in terms of traditional history. The rhizomatic, decentralized structure of the postmodernist novel implies the polycentricism of the history depicte&d in it and also leads to the arbitrary intermingling of fact and fiction. As opposed to the historical novel, historiographic novels usually represent history in a decentralized way, were well-known historical characters are either absent or feature& as secondary. The author of the historiographic novel does not aim to present the detailed report on historical events. On the contrary, the author"s attention shifts to the modest and marginal in terms of the great History. Thus, author may emphasi&ze other aspects of its interpretation.
