Historiography and Time: In Search of a Lost Poem in Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know

Abstract

Tracing the delineations of historiography, time, and post-historical perspectives in the contemporary period, this paper examines the intertwining of the narrator's and the historian's roles, the use and abuse of extratextual materials to prove historicity and to deconstruct its time through narrative techniques in Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know (2025). McEwan’s novel explores a lost poem, “A Corona for Vivien,” from 2014, through a historian, Thomas Metcalfe, who searches for insights into the poem in the chaotic year 2119 and portrays time as a backward glance from the future, where nature and the world are already destroyed and chaotic. When the poem is considered as a historical text and the archives, letters, and e-mails as historical documents that help to measure its historicity and facticity, the poem becomes a means of questioning reality in terms of historical knowledge, reminding us that the reality we seek, like this poem, might simply be missing — not only in the present but also in the future. Consequently, through temporal shifts in the narrator from Metcalfe to Vivien herself, the poem emerges as a virtually and materially lost reality rather than a credible tool for a historian, blurring fact and fiction. In light of this, this paper aims to evaluate how Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know destabilises the idea of ultimate reality by turning it into an everlasting crisis of knowing and by addressing the narrative boundaries between past, present, and future through the concept of fragmented time.

Keywords

• Historiography
• time
• Ian McEwan
• What We Can Know.

Tarih Yazımı ve Zaman: Ian McEwan’ın What We Can Know Romanında Kayıp Bir Şiirin İzinde

Abstract

Çağdaş dönemde tarih yazımı, zaman ve tarih sonrası bakış açılarının sınırlarını izleyen bu makale, Ian McEwan'ın What We Can Know (2025) romanında anlatıcı ve tarihçinin rollerinin iç içe geçmesini; tarihselliği kanıtlamak için metin dışı materyallerin kullanımını ve suistimalini; anlatı teknikleri aracılığıyla zamanın sorunlaştırılmasını incelemektedir. McEwan’ın bu romanı, 2014 yılında yazılmış kayıp bir şiir olan “A Corona for Vivien”i, 2119 yılında bu şiire dair ipuçları arayan tarihçi Thomas Metcalfe’in bakış açısıyla ele almakta ve zamanı, doğanın ve dünyanın çoktan zarar görmüş ve kaosa sürüklenmiş olduğu gelecekten geriye doğru yöneltilmiş bir bakış olarak kurgulamaktadır. Bu nedenle, bu çalışma, şiiri tarihsel bir metin olarak, arşivleri, mektupları, ve e-postaları ise şiirdeki tarihselliği ve gerçekliği ölçmeye yardımcı olan belgeler olarak inceler. Bu bağlamda, bu şiir, tarihsel bilgi bağlamında gerçekliği sorgulamanın bir aracı haline gelir ve bu şiirde olduğu gibi, aranan gerçekliğin yalnızca şimdiki zamanda değil, aynı zamanda açık bir biçimde gelecekte de yitirilmiş olabileceğini düşündürür. Sonuç olarak, anlatıcının Metcalfe’den Vivien’in kendisine doğru olan zaman geçişleriyle, şiir, bir tarihçi için güvenilir bir araç olmaktan ziyade, hem sanal hem de somut açıdan yitirilmiş bir gerçeklik olarak ortaya çıkmakta ve gerçek ile kurguyu birbirine karıştırmaktadır. Bu bilgiler ışığında, bu makale, Ian McEwan’ın What We Can Know (2025) romanının, mutlak gerçeklik kavramını nasıl sarsarak onu bilmeye dair süregelen bir krize dönüştürdüğünü ve geçmiş, şimdiki zaman ve gelecek arasındaki anlatı sınırlarını nasıl ele aldığını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Tarih yazımı
• zaman
• Ian McEwan
• What We Can Know.

References

1. Atilla, A. (2017). Historiography and the English novel. İzmir: Ege University.
2. Charles, R. (2025, September 18). Ian McEwan’s what we can know: The past is an irresistible riddle. The Washington Post. Retrieved January, 2026, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/09/18/what-we-can-know-ian-mcewan-review/.
3. Eaglestone, R. (2019). The past. In D. O’Gorman and R. Eaglestone (Eds.), The routledge companion to twenty-first century literary fiction (pp. 311-310). London and New York: Routledge.
4. Genette, G. (1980). Narrative discourse: An essay in method. (J. E. Lewin, Trans.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. (Original Work Published 1972).
5. Ghosh, A. (2016). Great derangement: Climate change and the unthinkable. London: The University of Chicago Press.
6. Gossman, L. (1978). History and literature. In R.H. Canary and H. Kozicki (Eds.), The writing of history: Literary form and historical understanding (pp. 3-40). London: The University of Wisconsin Press.
7. Greenblatt, S., & Gallagher, C. (2000). Practising new historicism. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
8. Groes, S. (2013). Ian McEwan: Contemporary critical perspectives. London and Newyork. Bloomsbury Publishing.

9. Hutcheon, L. (1988). A poetics of postmodernism: History, theory, and fiction. New York and London: Routledge.
10. Livingston, P. (2001). Narrative. The routledge companion to aesthetics. B. Gaut and D.M. Lopes (Eds.). London and New York: Routledge.
11. Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. (G. Bennington and B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Original Work Published 1979).
12. McEwan, I. (2025a). What we can know. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. (e-book)
13. McEwan, I. (2025b). What we can know. IanMcEwan.com. Retrieved January 10, 2026, from https://www.ianmcewan.com/books/whatwecanknow.html.
14. McHale, B. (1987). Postmodernist fiction. London and New York: Routledge.
15. Montrose, L. A. (1989). Professing the Renaissance: The poetics and politics of culture. In H. Aram and N.Y. Vesser (Eds.), The new historicism (pp. 15-36). London: Routledge.
16. Munslow, A. (2003). The new history. London: Pearson, Longman.
17. Nicol, B. (2009). The Cambridge introduction to postmodern fiction. The Cambridge University Press.
18. Power, K. (2025, September 16). What we can know by Ian McEwan review – the limits of liberalism. The Guardian. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/16/what-we-can-know-by-ian-mcewan-review-the-limits-of-liberalism
19. Ricoeur, P. (1983). Time and narrative. London: The University of Chicago Press.
20. Schumer, L. (2025, September 17). Ian McEwan's what we can know is ‘sophisticated gossip’-and so much more than that (exclusive). People.com. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://people.com/ian-mcewan-interview-what-we-can-know-exclusive-11811761
21. Waugh, P. (1984). Metafiction. London and New York: Routledge.
22. White, H. (1978). The historical text as literary artifact. In R. H. Canary and H. Kozicki (Eds.), The writing of history: Literary form and historical understanding (pp. 41-60). London: The University of Wisconsin Press.