Narrating the past
Subtitle: historiography, memory and the contemporary novel
By: Alan Robinson
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
ISBN-13: 9780230235939
Subjects: Historiography; History in literature; Narration (Rhetoric); Memory in literature; History and criticism; Fiction
Description: Interest in the narrative representation of the past, in both historiography and historical fiction, has mushroomed since the 1960s. But discussions among historians and literary scholars have often produced more heat than light. To remedy this situation, this study clarifies theoretical and methodological issues in making sense of the past which all forms of historical narrative share, tracing systematic connections between historiography, historical novels and life-writing. It differs from other criticism of historical fiction, which usually divides the genre into thematic or formal categories, in focusing on the explicit or implicit historiographical assumptions of historical novelists. In other words, it approaches historical fiction as a form of history in its own right, which confronts similar cognitive and imaginative challenges to those faced by historians. This innovative framework underpins substantial new interpretations of significant recent novels (including works by Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, John Fowles, A.S. Byatt and Sarah Waters) and broader discussion of a range of related fiction.
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: The narrative turn in history; title: The historical turn in fiction; title: History, life-writing and epistemology; title: National stories; title: Present pasts in neo-victorian fiction; title: Gothic afterlives; title: After the event.