Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- 4 Defining the Historical Novel
- 5 The Increase of History as a Subject for Novels: Memory and the Context of Interpretation
- 6 ‘The plot against the plot’: Page-turners for Students
- 7 Counterfactual Histories and the Nature of History
- 8 Alternate Histories in the Classroom
- 9 ‘Caught in time's cruel machinery’: Time-slip Novels in the History Lesson
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
8 - Alternate Histories in the Classroom
from Part II - Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Challenges of Compulsory History in the Australian School Curriculum
- Part II Understanding the Genre of Historical Novels
- 4 Defining the Historical Novel
- 5 The Increase of History as a Subject for Novels: Memory and the Context of Interpretation
- 6 ‘The plot against the plot’: Page-turners for Students
- 7 Counterfactual Histories and the Nature of History
- 8 Alternate Histories in the Classroom
- 9 ‘Caught in time's cruel machinery’: Time-slip Novels in the History Lesson
- Part III Deconstructing the Historical Novel
- Conclusion
- References
Summary
He certainly had no wish to be caught up in Dr Evatt's recent confrontation with the Royal Commission inquiring into Petrov's defection — an attack on ASIO involving accusations of fraud and conspiracy. Evatt's turbulent court appearances, the slanging matches initiated by the temperamental opposition leader, had filled the headlines over the past few days, foreshadowing worse to come.
(Hasluck, 2011, pp. 20-21)Throughout Australian States and territories, History students often study the 1954 Petrov affair in Australian history, as they do the 1975 Whitlam dismissal. How might teachers add some historiographical zest to these studies? How can alternate history, or allohistorical narratives, assist?
An Australian example
The recent publication of Nicholas Hasluck's Dismissal (2011) is timely in these regards. Alternate histories are usually set amidst the great events of world history — Napoleon, Hitler and Nazism, and so on. Indeed, as Croome (2011) has stated, in what might amount to a throwaway line, alternate history is ‘a genre often undermined in Australia by the sense that nothing vital happens here, that nothing is at stake’. Indeed, for Croome, ‘Hasluck is on the front foot in this respect, not least because his well-structured set piece hinges on the Whitlam dismissal, one of the handful of events in Australian history capable of stirring genuine emotion and debate’.
The central character in Hasluck's novel is Roy Temple, a romantic and a left-winger, but with a successful career at the Sydney bar.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Whose History?Engaging History Students through Historical Fiction, pp. 99 - 116Publisher: The University of Adelaide PressPrint publication year: 2013