The historical novel jerome de groot PDF

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THE HISTORICAL NOVEL BY JEROME DE GROOT 1 – Introduction In the last few decades we have seen the explosion in sales and popularity of novels set in the past (Philippa Gregory, Ken Follett, Dan Brown ecc.) The historical novel is a genre that is increasing and historical writing can take place within numerous fictional locales: romance, detective, thriller, counterfactual, horror, literary, Gothic, postmodern, epic, fantasy, mystery, western, children's book. The intergeneric hybridity and flexibility of historical fiction have long been one of its defining characteristics: a historical novel might consider the articulation of nationhood via the past, highlight the subjectivism of narratives of History, underline the importance of the realist mode of wiring to notions of authenticity, question writing itself and attack historiographical convention. Historical novel attracts multiple, complex and dynamic audience and its written by different types of authors that also evolves a set of sub-genres for a multiplicity of audience. There are figures that we might see as key exponents of the novel form such as Gustave Flaubert or Leo Tolstoy that considered their historical fiction not to be novels at all but experiments and crucial interventions in important cultural debates. The historical novelist explores the dissonance and displacement between then and now, making the past recognizable but simultaneously authentically unfamiliar → the historical novelist is required to give 'not just the bare bones of history but something richer, more complete' (Alessandro Manzoni). The figure we met in the historical fiction are identifiable to us on the one hand due to the conceit of the novel form, because they speak the same language and their concerns are often similar to ours but their situation and their surroundings are immensely different (relatable but also not relatable). Sarah Waters → says that historical novel enforces on the reader a sense of historicised 'difference' (there is frisson [ → brivido ] in the excitement which this otherness provoke in the author); for her historical fiction 'reminds' the reader of their historical particularity and simultaneity and also describe the historical novel as a form of something which demands an unusual respond from its audience: an active response and a sense of otherness and difference when reading; the historical novel is also similar to other forms of novel-writing because it shares the concern with realism, development of characters and authenticity. Yet it entails an engagement on the part of the reader, possibly unconsciously, with a set of tropes, settings and ideas that are particular, alien and strange. Unconsciously or not, the three participants of the historical novel, reader, author and students, bring a set of reading skills and premeditated ideas to experience → historical novel is a slightly more inflected form, the reader is more self aware of the artificiality of the writing and the strangeness of engaging with the imaginary work which strives to explain something different: the past. Similar to this is science fiction → because it have a conscious interaction with a clearly unfamiliar set of landscapes, technologies and circumstances. Jonathan Nield → put a different between the writer and the reader:  writer: cannon surmount barriers which are not merely hard to scale, it's impossible to breathe the atmosphere of a bygone time, since all those thousand details which went to to the building up of both individual and general experience, can never reproduce → there are some problems associated with the literary taste, concern for authenticity, anxiety that the form might mislead its readership → writing a story have many barriers ;  reader: it's allowed to be hoodwinked under the influence of a pseudo-historic security (= pseudohistory presents a big lie—sensational claims—about historical fact that would require the revision (re-writing) of the historical record), because it seems to watch the real sequence of events in as far as these effect the characters in whom we are interested ; Nield introduce the concern for authenticity because historical novel gives the ability to change facts and that could lead to the innate ability to encourage an audience to be knowingly misinformed, misled and duped (= to be tricked). He also put the attention on the fact the thought the 19th century the historical novel was mostly referred to as “Historical Romance” and this term suggested the complexity and manipulability of the genre, its ability to meld hight and low types of writing, its popular appeal. This writing was deeply important for the novels by Walter Scott but also stood to one side. Nield approach is influenced by some critics suggested that the historical novel might be a force for educational good → some fiction might be harmful claiming that 'History itself possessed interest for us more as the unfolding of certain moral and mental developments that as a mere enumeration of facts'. He argues to some critics that said that the type of sceptisms common in approaches to the past was something that the novel could not incorporated; the 'pseudo-historic security' becalms the reader and makes them a passive recipient of all kinds of untruths. In contrast, historical novel that can happily hoodwinked its audience, does so with their collusion and that this complicity is more self conscious and self aware than Nield's critics might allow. The author note is important because can be an explanatory note form that the writer use for describing their own engagement with the period in question (commonly though reading and research). In Waverley by Sir Walter Scott has extensive notes encompass ballads and poetry (sometimes made up), political occurrences, biography, cultural costumes, classical learning, sword making, accounts of actual events → most of this is written by Scott but he also cites various authorities and sources to make his point work. In the preface of Waverley the author said that he have talked to many veterans about their experience. This techniques want to emphasizes the authority of the historical novel that was considered frivolous and for women (= novels were associated with women in the 18th century). Scott wanted to prove that his work is educational, well versed in actual events and eye-witness accounts, a worthwhile exercise, it is also a collage of information and generic form. An important part in the novel is when Edward Waverley has an interview with Colonel Gardiner in which his letters and his actions were reviewed and this wanted to demonstrate that there is another way of interpreting events, a self-reflexive moment in which Scott's narrative actively undermines itself → this had the effect of controlling the reader that in one hand is put in a position of the tourist but is also presumed t have some historical knowledge and therefore gains a certain power over the narrative to the extent that the novel cannot shock or challenge events. The notes and extraneous meta-narratives of the novel

encourage the audience of the work to acknowledge the multiplicity of history and the subjective version of it being presented by Scott → what Scott create is something that points to the generic mixture of the form as well as the indeterminacy of history. The para textual commentary has continued to the present day and each author have a different approach to the way in which their practice as historical novelist intersects with 'reality' and with 'history' . The artificiality of the novel introduced a fundamental meta fiction element to the form and demonstrate that as a genre the historical novel provokes a certain anxiety and disquiet on the part of the writer ( → examples on the sticky notes) When a writer approaches a figures who is still alive and fictionalizes their story: it is something acceptable? We can question the good taste and libel but also authenticity → the historical novelist has to negotiate their own position as regards their duty to history, veracity and the various figures that involves. 2 – Origins: early manifestation and some definitions This chapter wants to demonstrate that a concern with history has been present since the beginning of the novel form in the early 18th century. The key theorist is Georg Lukàcs and his ideas of immersion and historio-psychological realism and also European novel use the historical form to reflect on contemporary issues. How do different nations conceive the historical novel? As a form is generally considered to have originated during the early 19th century and in particular with the writing of Sir Walter Scott but this mode of writing clearly has many antecedents before that period. Scott was merely developing the novel's fascination with history, he was concreting in the novel form something that had been a mainstay of other types of literary production for centuries. The use of creative forms to conceptualise, question and simply present history is a fundamental cultural practise; the rebirth of interest in the classical period of Europe let to a tranche of texts taking historical events as their subject, an early version being Chaucher's “Troilus and Criseyde”. History became a matter for dramatic consideration → since 1590s with William Shakespeare, Marlow and others and sequentially plays that took place in history became commonplace; historical poetry and prose romances were commonplace during the medieval and early modern period → first historical novel to take into consideration is “The princess of Clevès” by Marie-Madeline de Lafayette. Another important publication is in 1605 with the “Don Quijote” by Cervantes that follows the increasingly delusional exploits of a landowner whose head has been filled with historical romances and who thinks of himself as a knight errant, part of a noble quest to save a damsel in distress → is a picaresque prose romance that wars on the folly of believing in fiction. The work is historical but it take place 'not long since'. This novel dramatises the way in which fictions of the past might infect the present and lead to romanticised madness; it also demonstrate that ludicrousness of thinking history relevant now, as part of the Quijote's insanity is to use archaic language, customs and practise the 'modern' world → his overactive historical fictional imagination turns windmills into vengeful knights and a donkey into a noble steed. The novel is a very complicated genre and we have to take into consideration that is not part of a progress towards anything or an expression of rational Enlightenment. The novel by Walter Scott is considered the first historical novel ignoring all the other writers or practitioners and also the story of the development of the historical novel is quite Eurocentric; Scott's example and influence were so big that obscured the others historical fictive writing, particularly the ones not from Europe. For example we have Lu Gaunzhong with the novel “Three Kingdoms” that is a prose historical fiction published in China in 1522 that was hugely influential in the Chinese culture but is not really considered in the West. This kind of novel had its rise in the latter part of 18th century even thou we have earlier examples as Lafayette's and also Daniel Defoe and Thomas Leland. 1800 → Preface of Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge that deride novels as being sensational and demeaning. The novel developed in different sub genres such as romance, epic, autobiography and was consistently in dialogue with its origins, in particular with the prose romance. Gothic Novels → Gothic is a type of writing which is fascinated by the unknown and mysterious. An important novel is “The castle of Otranto” by Horace Walpole that is also fascinated by the horrific possibilities of the past; he mixed ancient and modern romance in which contemporary characters are places in feudal settings and the use of the past to scare these recognisably 'modern' characters, was influential to all subsequent Gothic novelist. His novel concerns the sins of the past being visited upon the present; it present a piece of evidence, a historical document, with all the mystery and partiality associated with the archive. Walpole articulated a sense of historical characterisation and authenticity that Scott would developed later. He wanted to suggest that European's history and past is the site of Gothic terror, a place of possibility and credulity. In order to terrify the present it necessary to ignore our contemporary rationality and present the chaotic, scary, Catholic past → the historical novel is here as a vehicle for expressing terror and fear, a repository of horror. Here history is not a source of information or something to understand but is a place of horror and savagery, the historical place be it the castle, grave of forest, is a site where history might attack the visitor, a charnelhouse of remains that still have the power to harm. There is an obsession with artefacts and evidence of the past such as manuscripts, graves, passageways and rituals. An example of this is Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen where is demonstrate that the historical setting is used as a fantasy space for centralize a female consciousness and explore female desires and fears. William Godwin: Novels were a mass medium, widely available and popular and most of the people read them in circulating libraries rather that buying them and Scott describe doing this in his introduction of Waverley. Godwin notices a particular and problematic association of the novel with economics: printing meant that novels became he first mass-market literary medium and the first novel to be published widely was Waverley by Sir Walter Scott. Waverley was deeply influential and introduced a new form: the historical novel; we can't use this novel as a generic guide because itself is consciously a hybrid of styles. Godwin claims that a writer collects his materials, then generalises them and finally selects. Godwin is using an iconoclastic approach, almost claiming that fictionalising about history is a more honest way to create a narrative about something that is unknowable. The author's ability to generalise allows them to communicate something more profound than the historian.

Godwin also claims that the historian never know the character of those they write about: all the material a historian has can be misrepresented while the romance – writer create a creature of his own fancy. The writer of romance is considered the writer or real historian. So, history is clearly othered (distaccata) from us while the historical romance writer can create 'authentic' characters within a factual-led framework and write stories about them which will communicate as much as is necessary of the past. For Godwin the historical novel is the poetic awakening of the people who figured in those events, what matter is the re-experience of the social and human motives which led men to think, feel and act just the way they did in historical reality. Godwin is arguing this before Scott and in doing this he's suggesting some key things: 1. 2.

the writing of historical fiction has been, since its origins, something which has effectively comunicated narrative and characters; the very mode of imaginative writing about history demonstrate the innate falsity of History and the subjective ways in which we know, engaged with and understand the past;

On the other side, Sir Walter Scott was more interested in the ways that people act, rather then the effects and purposes of their actions, more in psychology rather than in costumes. Waverley: follows the fortunes of Edward Waverley, a foolish English gentleman who visits the Highlands of Scotland and becomes embroiled (coinvolto) in the nascent rebellion of the Jacobite “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. He is particularly drawn to the impudent and charming clan leader Fergus MacIvor and his sister Flora. The main character is a dreamy romantic who is seduced by the Scottish way of life and allows himself to get caught up in the events; not until the conclusion he attains self-consciousness and understand the force and consequence of his actions. Scott create a fusion between a strong characterisation and a good historical background. Edward Waverley is a foolish dreamer, fired by romantic fiction to seek adventure but discovering the grim (truce) realities behind the flourish; Waverley idealised version of things, for instance, during the clan's celebrations, MacIvor admits he doesn't really like the Highland celebrations but he partakes for the sake of his men. The romanticism of the novel is kinda problematic and Scott himself define his protagonist as a 'piece of imbecility'; Waverley is clearly connected with the figure of Don Quixote: he is something akin to the eccentric knight but he is also a young men learning about himself through a journey with is a key trope of the novel. In the presentation of its hero, the novel draws on the traditions of the Gothic novel: he can be associated with the passive female characters in the Gothic novels. Scott is particularly interested in the ways in which 'reality' can be misinterpreted by the imagination. Indeed the nature of reading fiction and the experience of the reader can lead to a romanticising tendency. Also, Waverley has its roots in romance and has a clear dialogue between the rational realism of England and the romantic, sublime, passionate romance of the Highlands → is seen in a debate between Flora and Edward over Scottish ballads and verse. [Flora is then exiled after the fall of her hero, Prince Charles; her brother moves from charming clan leader to condemned prisoner, executed for treason]. As Waverley travels though Scotland he sees the devastation wrought (battuto) upon the land by war and this experience upsets his simple view of things; Waverley is a character that is poised accidentally on the cups of historical events, influenced in different directions by reason and upbringing. He sees historical events but experiences them personally and from a variety of experience: he witness key battles but he is generally on the sidelines and then his gradually disillusionment with the rebellion shows a growing maturity as a person; he learn from his experience understanding the meanings of his actions → lead him to happiness. Various critics argued that Scott was concerned about the political instability that the presence of the past might have in contemporary society. Also, even if Scott talks about the culture, traditions and lives of the Highlanders he consistently undermines them: his attitude to Jacobitism is mixed also because Waverley is able to live on both sides of this divided political self. His lack of moral seriousness, ambivalence and political havering, his celebration of low characters and criminals and his representations of the vice of religion and the fact that his novel have no tone of ethical guidance, let to various critiques. Georg Lukàcs: he was a Marxist and wrote an essay called “The historical novel” published in 1955 that help for the analysis of the novel form. This essay takes Scott s its subject and seeks to understand the 'social and ideological basis from which the historical novel was able to emerge' and also analyses why his historical novels work and what their significance is. He suggest that the historical work before Scott is 'mere costumery' because he bring the specifically historical, the derivation of the individuality of characters from an peculiar historical age. Of course, before Scott there were 'historical theme''s novel but Scott used history to seeks to understand individuals historically; also Scott's novel emerged in a very specific moment: the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars but also the emerge of the capitalism as an economic structure after the enlightenment meant that the novel evolved into something which reflected a new sense of 'the concrete significance of time and place, social conditions and it created a spatiotemporal character of people and places' and the incipient capitalism and the separation of workers led to a sense of history as specific. After the French revolution a sense of historical perspective and progress was import, leading to a new con...