This study examines four novels by Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. It reveals the fundamental sources used in these novels in constructing the concept of the "historical imagination". The traditional concept of "official history" is rejected and gives rise to an eclectic view of the past that embraces scientific and philosophical knowledge, the voices of the marginalized "other", folkloric manifestations, and the imaginative reflections of the characters and narrators. Memory functions as a means to approach the past and/or as a rhetoric that is connected to both the imagination and literary conventions. The analysis of the anthropological/historical imagination demonstrates that Veloz Maggiolo"s treatment of the human condition, identity, the magical and myth differentiates it from that of other Latin American novelists; the narrative discourses of his novels demonstrates that they are conceived with archaeological techniques. The study finally shows that the historical concept sustained in such works stems from complex systems that include cultural, ideological, literary sources and "illogical" convictions about time.