ENGLISH 339-E Prof. Cora Agatucci Literary Genres

Seminar #1 Summary:  What Is Historical Fiction? ~ 9 April 2003 Seminar #1 Summarizer:  Cora Agatucci, ENGL 339-E, Spring 2003 URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/seminar1.htm Seminar #1 Participants:  C.A., T.C, C.D., C.D., T.E., A.K., A.L., L.L., L.S., and J.V.  Added Contribution by Ca.D. | T.C. Works Cited in this Seminar #1 Summary are given below.

1.  What is "Historical Fiction"?  Hoffman and others [e.g. Macleod and Sarricks] were recommended for providing helpful genre definitions--lists of genre conventions and criteria--to recognize and understand what historical fiction is. 2.  How historically accurate must [good] Historical Fiction be?  How much and what type of historical inaccuracy and fictionalizing are acceptable in "Historical" Fiction?  What about liberties taken with both verifiable "history" and "realistic" plausibility that characterize the HF subgenre of "historical romance"? The answer to these questions is "undefined."  "Fiction" allows for some "fudging" of the "facts"--but how much?  "Historical" fiction should present believable and plausible representations of the past.  But see also Rainbolt's discussion [i.e. “It’s not history.  It’s fiction” and should judged as "fiction"]. The kind of changes --types of historical inaccuracies, etc.--presented in Historical Fiction is important to answering these questions.  Egregious anachronisms are unacceptable violations of genre expectations for Historical Fiction (e.g. introducing cars into 19th-century historical fiction or giving women rights that they did not have during a past setting of a historical fiction). The uses to which Historical Fiction is put are also important.  Macleod discusses this issue [in relation to children's historical fiction]: "historical fiction should be good fiction and good history."  This criterion seems especially important if historical fiction is being used in the classroom to teach history.  Some "fudging" of historical accuracy might be considered acceptable if the historical fiction dramatizes positive role models (e.g. for females in the case of Sarah Plain and Tall).  Instructive lessons can also be focused on historical inaccuracies, distortions, etc., in historical fiction's representation of history - e.g. to teach critical thinking, etc.  And further inquiry and study are needed for teachers to determine and teach just what is indeed historically (in)accurate:  e.g.  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl  suggests that at least some women were more rebellious and insistent upon their "rights" than what (our perceptions of) "official" history may have led us to believe. See also Sarricks on what she considers desirable in HF writers' intentions and respect for historical accuracy.  What is the difference between Historical "Romance" [e.g. Sir Walter Scott's fiction and the film Braveheart] vs. Historical "Novel" [i.e. adheres to conventions of literary realism]?  [Cora: offer definitions in separate handout - using W. Scott articles] 3. What is meant by "persuasive" (Rainbolt) as a criterion for defining and judging Historical Fiction?  Can , should [good] Historical Fiction be both "persuasive" and "entertaining"? [Rainbolt quotes "the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa: 'When you write a novel you do not have the obligation to be true and exact; the only obligation you have is to be persuasive.  And to be persuasive as a novelist in most cases you are obliged to transform, to distort reality, to lie, to invent something that is not true -- that is the only way fiction can be persuasive" - emphasis added.] 4. How far in the "past" must a fiction be set to qualify as "Historical" fiction?  Does any fiction set in the "past" qualify as "historical fiction"?  More specifically, should any work of "realistic" fiction set in the past be classified as "historical fiction"? Seminar responses to these questions were varied and conflicted. [Sir Walter Scott's response: The "novel should be set at least two generations in the past" (R. Gordon Kelly, cited by Rainbolt).  Later Ernest Leisy "reduced Scott's criterion to only half a generation: 'A historical novel is a novel the action of which is laid in an earlier time'" (R. Gordon Kelly, qtd. by Rainbolt).] [Sarricks' response: "The simplest definition of historical fiction is that it is set in the past, before the author's lifetime and experience, but there's much more to it than that. Historical fiction makes a point of conveying a serious respect for historical accuracy and detail, and its intention, beyond providing reading pleasure, is to enhance the reader's knowledge of past events, lives, and customs" emphasis added.] One interesting discussion strand focused on Mark's Twain's Huck Finn [including speculation on whether a novel like Huck Finn written by a white male author today would be accepted for publication, much less be "canonized" as great literature worthy of study in today's literature classrooms]. Huck Finn is a work of "literary realism" set in the author's past--so should it be categorized as "historical fiction"?  To answer this question, one could choose to apply the distinction proposed in Hoffman:  "There are two kinds of historical fiction. In the first the setting is historical but there are no historical events or persons in the story. . . . The second kind of historical fiction is where both the setting and supporting characters are factual." 5.  Readers should be aware that authors' perspectives, biases, theories inform and shape the thematic messages of works of Historical Fiction. Historical fiction and historiography are informed and shaped by the (political, social, economic, biographical, etc.) perspectives, biases, theories of their authors. Some works of historical fiction are (deliberately) intended to supplement, challenge, and/or "revise" history (i.e. "official" historiography).  [E.g. post-colonial historical fiction (see Aizenberg: These writers share a "need . . . to come to terms with a past usurped by a colonial regime," to refute the colonizers' "'official' versions" of that past, and to re-create a "national history, particularly those portions distorted or censored by [Western] conquerors and their successors" (85)".] Seminar #1 discussion included interesting speculation on what messages would be presented by  future historiography and historical fictions addressing the current "Iraqi" war.

Concluding Observations & Questions for Further Consideration By Seminar #1 Summarizer Cora Agatucci 1.  Defining a literary genre is a challenging business--a task harder than it may at first seem to be.  Seminar #1 discussion of proposed genre conventions and criteria proposed for defining Historical Fiction revealed considerable ambiguity, interpretive range, and differences of opinion in trying to clarify and apply these definitions--i.e. use them to decide whether specific works of literature and film are, indeed, "historical fiction." 2.  What is the value--and what are the benefits and limitations--of using Genre (theory and criticism) to approach study of literature [and film]?  I think this kind of question is important and should be asked more often than it is.  Here we are in English 339 - Literary Genres, a course required of EOU Discourse Studies students, and an elective approved to satisfy general education degree requirements for other students.  But why?--what essential or valuable knowledge and skills can we gain from this course relevant to humanities study of literature and film? 3.  What are the interdisciplinary differences and similarities of "History" and "Historical Fiction"?  While not posed or addressed directly, this key question underlies several of the above Seminar #1 discussion topics--yes?  (And one key reason why Cora chose "historical fiction" as the focus of ENGL 339-E, Literary Genres is because this particular genre within the field of Literature/Film Studies overlaps and interrogates traditional academic boundaries between "History" and "Literature.")

ENGL 339 Students: For more example Seminar Summaries from Spring 2002,  please see: Spring 2002 Seminar #1 ~ What Is Historical Fiction? URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/spring2002/Seminar1.htm Spring 2002 Seminar #2 ~ Jewel in the Crown URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/spring2002/Seminar2.htm Spring 2002 Seminar #3 ~ Jewel in the Crown URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/spring2002/Seminar3.htm Spring 2002 Seminar #4 ~ A Pale View of Hills  URL: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng339/spring2002/Seminar4.htm