Summary  How does Ragtime resemble, and diverge from, a traditional historiographic text, and what is the purpose of Doctorow’s parodic reworking of historiography? As an introduction to this thesis, the debate in different literary traditions regarding the relationship between literature and historiography is presented. With a primary focus on postmodern theory, Linda Hutcheon’s concept “historiographic metafiction” is introduced, in order to establish the type of narrative that Ragtime is. E. L. Doctorow’s essay “False Documents” is discussed in a separate part of this chapter because it provides a deeper understanding of the philosophical ideas behind Doctorow’s narrative. In this text he fights for the importance of the fiction writer as commentator on our society, and challenges the notion that the genre of historiography is a purveyor of objective truths as opposed to literature which, according to Doctorow, is generally considered unimportant or “merely for fun”. Doctorow claims that “all is narrative”, implying that fiction and non-fiction are equal as they can only provide subjective accounts of the past. The subjectivity inherent in historiographic narratives is further explored through Doctorow’s presentation of historical characters in Ragtime. The presence of celebrity characters creates confusion about the nature of the novel as a work of fiction or as a historiographic account. Through the use of irony and humour, Ragtime is a parody of historiographic narratives which claim to be objective. Furthermore, the Little Boy narrates the story of his childhood from the historical point of the mid-1970s. As a consequence, the narration is a complex mix of his childhood memories, his imaginative abilities and the general discourse about the Ragtime years as it is presented through the media and historical intertexts. As an omniscient story-teller, he is able to relate to events that took place in the early 20th century which proved significant in the years to come. The narrative strategies of traditional historiographic narratives are exploited, yet the Little Boy’s awareness of the instability of representation, creates a parodic relation to the genre of historiography. Through Ragtime Doctorow proves his point that “all is narrative”, as he reveals that all types of narratives are inescapably subjective. He argues for a collective kind of history-writing where there is no discrimination between genres. The result would be a complex library of a multitude of subjective historiographies.