The return of the historical novel? : thinking about fiction and history after historiographic metafiction / edited by Andrew James Johnston, Kai Wiegandt.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Johnston, Andrew James, editor.

Wiegandt, Kai, editor.

Series:

Britannica et Americana ; Band 33.

Britannica et Americana ; Band 33

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fiction--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Fiction.

Consciousness in literature.

Experimental fiction--History and criticism.

Experimental fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 pages).

Place of Publication:

Heidelberg, [Germany] : Universitätsverlag Winter, 2017.

Summary:

Until recently, the critical reception of historical fiction was dominated by two theoretical paradigms: György Lukács's Marxist view and Linda Hutcheon's concept of 'historiographic metafiction'. We are now entering a new phase as the discussion of the historical novel is rapidly becoming more inclusive, more tolerant and, above all, more diverse. It is before the backdrop of these changes in the critical debate that the contributions to this volume are meant to be read. Rather than seeing historical fiction as locked in a clear-cut scheme of teleological succession or assigning to the historical novel specific aesthetic purposes, the articles in this collection seek to probe deeply into the historical novel's potential for providing readers not simply with an understanding of how the image of the past is constructed but also of how attempts to chart forms of historical otherness constitute a specific mode of cultural experience mediated by literature. This desire for a literary experience of historical otherness has recently increased in urgency, even if the historical authenticity one might nostalgically associate with such a project must always elude us. Authors discussed include Walter Scott, John Fowles, Graham Swift, M. J. Vassanji, J. M. Coetzee, Peter Ackroyd, Alan Massie, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Hilary Mantel and Jim Crace.

Contents:

Scott-land and the invention of the historical novel: Walter Scott's Waverley / Cordula Lemke

Neo-Victorian novels: staging historicity in John Fowles's The French lieutenant's woman / Claudia Olk

Historiographic metafiction and the history of nature: John Fowle's The French lieutenant's woman and Graham Swift's Waterland / Ute Berns

The production of history: M.G. Vassanji's postcolonial historical novel on the Indian Ocean rim / Russell West-Pavlov

History as a struggle of generations: J.M. Coetzee's The master of Petersburg / Kai Weigandt

Figurations of authorship in postmodern historical fiction / Helga Schwalm

History, the contemporary, and life in time: timescapes in Ian McEwan's and Julian Barnes' novels / Heike Hartung

Atonement: Ian McEwan's Canturbury tale? / Andrew James Johnston

Thomas Cromwell, our contemporary: the poestic of subjective experience as intersubjective ethics in Wolf Hall / Renate Brosch

'There'll be progress of a sort': elegizing the historical novel in Jim Crace's Harvest / Margitta Rouse.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed April 25, 2017).

ISBN:

9783825376932

3825376931