後現代理論家－哈瓊(Linda Hutcheon)所定義的《歷史書寫後設小說》(Historiographic metafiction)理論中，否定了歷史和虛構之間的清楚界線，強調歷史不再是對過去本身的客觀呈現，而是充滿主觀的想像和詮釋。因此，葛雷漢‧史威夫特在《水之鄉》一書中對於歷史本質的關注，可作為歷史後設小說中的一本重要著作。小說的主人翁－湯姆，是一名高中歷史教師，肩負著傳授歷史知識給下一代的使命。小說的內容由湯姆在退休前的最後幾堂課所構成，藉由講述法國大革命的同時，他企圖透過重構個人家族史和英格蘭東部地域史，來解釋當下生活中所發生的危機，並在此過程中引領學生反思歷史。本文旨在研究葛雷漢‧史威夫特在《水之鄉》一書，對於歷史虛構性的探討。在小說中，湯姆不僅在講述家鄉事件的過程中，提供各種不同版本的可能解釋，暗示歷史本身的事實雖然存在，但真相卻往往在不同版本的故事或論述中顯得互相矛盾甚至晦暗不明。除此之外，湯姆也在講述以進步概念為基礎的法國大革命時，企圖以歷史循環論的觀點挑戰啟蒙時代所信仰的真理，揭露人類歷史上有許多無法避免的回歸（return）與退步(regression)。在突顯歷史背後的人為和建構性的過程中，湯姆提醒學生和讀者在學習歷史的過程當中，要抱持著懷疑的精神與多元的態度，避免從單一的角度看待歷史而造成盲點。

Historiographic metafiction, a type of postmodern novels defined by Linda Hutcheon, refuses to clarify the distinction between history and fiction, emphasizing that history is never the mirroring of the real past itself but the textualized remains based on people’s subject imagination and interpretation. Due to its elaborate meditation on the nature of history, Graham Swift’s Waterland serves a great example of this kind of postmodern metafiction. Tom Crick, the narrator of the novel, is a history teacher who bears the burden to pass down the historical knowledge to the next generations. Faced with his personal crisis, Tom starts to tell his personal and family history in the middle of teaching the French Revolution. Intertwined with Tom’s narrative is his discussion of the nature of history and the close relationship between history and story-telling. This thesis aims to examine the fictionality of history that is explored by Swift in Waterland. With his self-reflexive narrative, Tom shows that the causality and meanings that are found in historical events are not found but constructed by people. By juxtaposing multiple versions of explanations of the events of the Fens, Tom makes an implication of the elusiveness and indeterminacy of historical truth. In addition, by illustrating many inevitable retreats and regressions that human history and human nature have displayed throughout generations, Tom’s exposure of a circular human history undermines the credibility of the Idea of Progress that was thought to be the truth since the Enlightenment age. In the process of drawing attention to history as a human fabrication, Tom reminds the students and readers to always be skeptical when learning history and to always look at one thing from different angles rather than just hold on to one single and totalizing perspective.

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