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
4 - Defining the Historical Novel
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
The genre of historical fiction is continually expanding, adapting to new demands from readers and the creativity of authors. First, let us examine this phenomenon from its international perspectives.
The range of historical fiction
What is historical fiction? The United States-based Historical Novel Society acknowledges the complexity and proposes the following definition:
There will never be a satisfactory answer to these questions, but these are the arbitrary decisions we've made.
To be deemed historical (in our sense), a novel must have been written at least fifty years after the events described, or have been written by someone who was not alive at the time of those events (who therefore approaches them only by research). (Historical Novel Society, n.d.).
Perhaps to maximise membership, however, the society offers a much broader definition:
We also consider the following styles of novel to be historical fiction for our purposes: alternate histories (e.g. Robert Harris's Fatherland), pseudo-histories (e.g. Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before), timeslip novels (e.g. Barbara Erskine's Lady of Hay), historical fantasies (e.g. Bernard Cornwell's King Arthur Trilogy) and multiple-time novels (e.g. Michael Cunningham's The Hours). (Historical Novel Society, n.d.)
Historical fiction comprises several sub-genres, and their nomenclatures are quite arbitrary. In Chapters 7, 8 and 9 respectively, I will examine counterfactual histories, alternate histories and time-slip histories for their application to the History curriculum in Australian schools.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Whose History?Engaging History Students through Historical Fiction, pp. 47 - 54Publisher: The University of Adelaide PressPrint publication year: 2013