Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part J (2025)

This paper examines Alemayehu Wassie’s Miteralion (2014) as a postmodern Amharic novel that reimagines Ethiopian history through the strategy of historiographic metafiction. By blending myth, history, and religious symbolism, Miteralion reconstructs Ethiopia’s historical consciousness while questioning the authority of official historiography. Through figures such as Emperor Tewodros II, Queen Azeb Makeda, and the symbolic naming of sacred spaces, Alemayehu transforms history into an interpretive act shaped by imagination and cultural memory. The study employs Linda Hutcheon’s concept of historiographic metafiction and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic theory of interpretation to explore how the novel negotiates between history, faith, and national identity. The analysis reveals that Miteralion challenges Eurocentric and linear narratives of historical truth, presenting history instead as a dialogic and ethical process grounded in cultural self-understanding. Ultimately, the novel exemplifies how postmodern Amharic fiction engages with memory and myth to reaffirm Ethiopia’s intellectual and spiritual agency in the modern world.