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Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the study examines in how far a selection of psychological and historical theories might help to uncover further levels of meaning in postmodern, metahistorical fiction. While the book centres on the work of Penelope Lively, novels by other contemporary British writers serve as comparisons. The texts are read against different models of personal and collective memory and investigated in the context of various historical concepts, analysing their particular approach to the subjective nature of 'reality'. With regard to the interdependence of public and private memory in fictional texts, the study highlights that, more often than not, the principles at work in memory can be transfered to historical developments at large and vice versa. Bisherige Forschungsschwerpunkte der Autorin: Contemporary English fiction, British cultural studies