Introduction
A. E.L. Doctorow' s Life and Literary Career
B. Doctorow Studies in America and China
C. Theoretical Frame, Structure and Main Contents of the Dissertation
Chapter 1 The Characteristics of E.L. Doctorow' s Postmodern Historical Fiction
A. The Nature of Historical Fiction
B. Doctorow' s Coverage of Almost All Periods of American History
Chapter 2 The March : A Literary Representation of the American Civil War
A. Inventing the Past
B. History as Myth
Chapter 3 The Waterworks : A True Picture of the Political Corruption of Capitalism in the 19th and 20th Centuries
A. The Historical Situations
B. From the Real World to the Artistic World
C. Anti - Industrialism
Chapter 4 Ragtime: A Literary Representation of America in the 1910s
A. The Transformation of Pre - World War I America into Images
B. The Fragments of Time into a Series of Perpetual Presents
C. Verisimilitude Instead of Objective Truth
D. The American Dream
Chapter 5 World' s Fair: The Historical Writing of the Great Depression in the
1930s and Its Indeterminacy
A. A Historical Writing about the Great Depression
B. Indeterminacy: World's Fair as an Innovative Autobiography
Chapter 6 The Book of Daniel: The Politics of Polyphony of McCarthyism in the 1950s
A. The Red Scare and McCarthyism
B. The Politics of Polyphony
Chapter 7 Postmodern Artistic Devices in E.L. Doctorow' s Historical Fiction
A. Doctorow' s Faith in His Postmodern Historical Fiction
B. Mixture of Genres: Fiction, Autobiography, Play and Detective Stories
C. Blending Fact and Fiction
D. History, Culture and Politics
E. Doctorow's Narrative Art
Conclusion
Works Cited
Acknowledgements
