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 Situatior
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 Trarformation of Pre - World War I America into Images
B.The Fragments of Time into a Series of Perpetual Presents
C.Verisimilitude Irtead 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