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| Course
Home Syllabus Course Plan Course Pack: Introduction Bibliography: Genre |
Genre Theory &
Criticism
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| Siegel, Kristi
(Assistant
Professor, English, Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, WI). Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism: Literary Trends and Influences (2001). URL: http://www.geocities.com/kristisiegel/theory.htm [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Genre Criticism: "Study
of different forms or types of literature. Genre studies often focus on the
characteristics, structures, and conventions attributed to different forms of
literature, e.g., the novel, short story, poem, drama, film, etc. More recent
inquiry in genre criticism centers on the bias often inherent in genre
criticism such as its latent (or overt) racism and sexism." The
"Genre Criticism" entry on this webpage includes bibliographies for fiction, poetry, drama, & short story. ø |
|
|
Jones,
Joel. “Howell’s The
Leatherwood God: The Model in Method for the American Historical
Novel.” Explicator
51.2
(Winter 1993): 96 (8pp). EBSCOHost
Academic Search Elite 2000; Article No. 9307130070. [Full text available.] |
|
| Cora's Abstract: Jones applies an Aristotelian perspective to defining
the literary genre of the historical novel and to analyzing The
Leatherwood God (1916), the first attempt to write an historical
novel by author William Dean Howell, U.S. champion of literary realism.
Jones's discussion
of Howell’s objections to the historical romance contrasted to
his advocacy of literary realism and his practice in The Leatherwood
God, are useful in distinguishing these different modes of
historical fiction. ø |
|
|
“It’s not history.
It’s fiction.” |
|
| Rainbolt,
William (Dept. of English, Univ. of Albany-SUNY).
"He
Disagreed with the History, But He Liked the Story." Writing History / Writing Fiction: A Virtual Conference Session.
History and MultiMedia Center, University at Albany-SUNY URL: http://www.albany.edu/history/hist_fict/Rainbolt/Rainboltes.htm [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Rainbolt, a creative writer, journalism
teacher, and Ph.D. in history, considers various definitions of the
genre and discusses his own approach to writing historical
fiction. He concludes that the imaginative experience is "not
escaping, but confronting life through literature." ø |
|
| Levie,
Barbara [Evanstan Library, Illinois]. Historical
Fiction Authors (June 1995). URL: http://www.evanston.lib.il.us/library/bibliographies/bdl3.html [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Librarian Levie offers a list of authors who write historical fiction,
categorized by time period. ø |
|
|
"The historian, if honest, gives us a photograph; |
|
| Mallon, Thomas (Univ.
of Maryland, Baltimore). "History,
Fiction, and the Burden of Truth." Writing History
/ Writing Fiction: A Virtual Conference Session. History
and MultiMedia Center, University at Albany-SUNY URL: http://www.albany.edu/history/hist_fict/Mallon/Mallons.htm [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| "At a time when
important filmmakers and serious novelists are turning to historical
subjects with unusual frequency, their audiences find themselves left to
ponder and preserve the distinctions between facts and
fabrications." Mallon, himself an historical novelist, does
not believe that "the genre, even when done well, rises to a higher
truth than perceptively written history. The literal truth, of things
judicial as well as historical, is preferable to any subjective one.
However differently experienced by its participants, and prejudicially
interpreted by their heirs, historical events happened one way and one
way only. It's only their meaning that's open to
interpretation." Yet "two occasions...best call for the
historical novelist: when the facts have been lost to time, and when a
time has been lost to the facts." ø |
|
| Mallon, Thomas. “Writing Historical Fiction.” American Scholar 61.4 (Fall 1992): 604 (6pp). EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, 2001: AN [Item number] 9302010352. [NOTE: COCC Library subscribes to EBSCOHost] | |
| See Introduction
to Historical Fiction: Mallon ø |
|
| Mitchell, Reid (Univ.
of Maryland, Baltimore). "Imaginary
Evidence: The Historical Fiction of Alice Munro." Writing
History / Writing Fiction: A Virtual Conference Session. History
and MultiMedia Center, University at Albany-SUNY URL: http://www.albany.edu/history/hist_fict/Mitchell/Mitchelles.htm [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| "[T]he historical method, which begins
with collecting fragmentary evidence, like an archaeologist his
potsherds or the paleontologist his few bones of some great beast, does
not have to smooth contradictions and ambiguity into conventional
narrative. Like much 20th century fiction, it can instead leave much of
the work to the readers, deny them the authorial voice, and ultimately
leave the complete story unknown. Most historians prefer to leave the
reconstructions and ambiguities to the footnotes and cloak their
interpretations in authority. But the writer of historical fiction
should see opportunity where the professors fear to tread. Writers such
as Alice Munro have used the imprecision of history to create a
literature of uncertainty, fiction in which the author refuses to
reassure us that we know for sure what really happens....Alice
Munro's 'A Wilderness Station' is a particularly fine example of how
imaginary evidence may be used. It is told entirely by 'documents':
letters written in the 1850s, recollections in a 1907 newspaper, and a
reminiscence written in 1959...." ø |
|
| Quinn, Mary Ellen. "Reference on the Web: Historical Fiction Sites." Booklist 96.15 (1 April 2000): 1492. EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, 2001: AN [Item number] 2998088. [NOTE: COCC Library subscribes to EBSCOHost] | |
| Quinn
reviews "several historical fiction Web sites," including
"`Fictional Rome,' by Fred Mench; `Of Ages Past: The Online Magazine for
Historical Fiction,' edited by Trace Edward Zaber; and `Soon's Historical
Fiction Site,' by Soon Y. Choi." ø |
|
|
"What is history
but a fable agreed upon?" |
|
| Soon Y. Choi
(Graduate School of Business, University of Texas at
Austin). Soon's
Historical Fiction Site. Old (?) URL: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~soon/histfiction/index.html [last accessed Feb. 2002]. New (?) URL: http://home.austin.rr.com/histfiction/index.html [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Soon's
Historical Fiction Site provides a list of resources on historical fiction and novels including a FAQ,
and a master list of historical fiction writers and links. Compiled from the
archives of rec.arts.books.hist-fiction. ø |
|
| Soon Y. Choi.
An
(Almost) Complete Guide to Historical Fiction Reference Books. Soon's Historical Fiction Site. URL: http://home.austin.rr.com/histfiction/references.html [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Part A. On Selection Criteria Used by
Reference Books Part B. Historical Fiction Reference Books ø |
|
| Sarricks,
Joyce (Literature & Audio Services
Coordinator, Downers Grove Public Library, Downers Grove, IL).
"Writers & Readers: Historical Fiction--Rules of the Genre."
Booklist 1 April 1999. Rpt. NoveList News June 1999.
[
NoveList News is produced in the Durham, NC office of NoveList, a division of
EBSCO Publishing]. URL: http://novelist.epnet.com/nlwebp/NoveListNews/nlnews9906.htm [Last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Abstract ø |
|
|
Related Topics: |
|
| Agatucci, Cora
(Professor of
English, Central Oregon Community College, Bend, OR). Genre Studies: Fiction. English 104: Introduction to Literature: Fiction (Fall 2001). URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng104/genre.htm [last accessed March 2002]. |
|
| Ann Charters defines genre as "a
type of literary work, such as short story, novel, essay, play,
or poem. The term may also be used to classify literature within a type,
such as science-fiction stories or detective novels. In film, the
term refers to a recognizable type of movie, such as a western or a
thriller, that follow familiar narrative or visual
conventions" ("Glossary of Literary Terms," The
Story and Its Writer, 983; qtd. in Agatucci). Agatucci's
annotated
bibliography focuses on the short story, with some film adaptation
resources. ø |
|
| Joseph, Betty.
"Re(Playing) Crusoe/Pocahontas: Circum-Atlantic Stagings in The
Female American." Criticism
43.3 (Summer 2001): 317 (19pp). EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite,
2001:
AN [Item number] 5489128. [NOTE: COCC Library subscribes to EBSCOHost] |
|
| Abstract: "Considers
the 1767 anonymous novel The Female American as a text that rewrites Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe by creating the figure of Pocahontas. Process of
surrogation employed in the novel; Deflected trajectory that the female
historical figure of Pocahontas manages to effect; Contesting of the
conventional readings of transatlantic journeys as nationalistic exercises;
Re-situation of the text within a postcolonial critical matrix." ø |
|
| Martin, William. "First-Person Narrators in Historical Fiction." Writer 113.2 (Feb. 2000): 7 (5pp). Rpt. EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite, 2001: AN [Item number] 2705104. [NOTE: COCC Library subscribes to EBSCOHost] | |
| Cora's Abstract: Martin discusses first-person narrative
techniques used in historical fictions and compares the focus of historians
and novelists. ø |
|
| Reames-Zimmerman,
Jeanne. Beyond Renault: Alexander the Great in Fiction (1998-2000). URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~mathetria/Beyond_Renault/beyondrenault.html [last accessed Feb. 2002]. |
|
| Cora's Abstract: This website offers a listing, with (academic) reviews, of 20th Century fiction (all genres) which features Alexander the Great, and has garnered a "Top 5% Award" from "Alexander the Great on the Web." | |
| Schmunk, Robert
B. "Introduction." Uchronia: The Alternate
History List.
(1991-2002). URL: http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html [last accessed Feb. 2002]. |
|
| “Uchronia” or "alternate history" involves the "what ifs" of history. | |
You are Here: Genre
Theory & Criticism: Fiction
URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/biblio/genre.htm
Last Updated: 13 April 2002
This webpage is maintained by Cora
Agatucci, Professor of English,
Humanities Department, Central
Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002
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