Historical Fiction was once regarded as being something of a failed concept, for
many years’ publishers and writers shied away from the genre because it was
seen as too problematic. Multiculturalism as a notion quickly took to most
communities; it had consequences that included improving the sensitivity of the
general public. This led to authors and readers to re-examine the overall
interpretation of historical events, soon followed by a large number of young
adult novels which focused on neglected historical events and offering new,
enlightened perspectives of and attitudes about them.
Historical Fiction is one of the most challenging genres to write, a major difficulty
when accepting a book as Historical Fiction is how to define the genre and
therefore deem which books qualify under that genre. Many definitions rely on
setting, with Historical Fiction such a setting is the past. A major question is how
far into the past is enough to call an event “history”. In actual fact any event that
has happened in the past is considered history. A common occurrence in
Historical Fiction novels is when an author writes about a fictional character
interacting with a historical character. Althea Reed categorized novels, which
partake in this idea as Historic Fiction, Ms Reed claims that the role of Historic
Fiction is to ‘reveal history and the true character of historic figures’. She
compares this to Historical Fiction which doesn’t include historic figures and
whose purpose is to ‘bring history to life’. This definition is incredibly useful
when determining the purpose of Historical fiction.
One key question that must be investigated is; how truthful must the novel be,
this issue would appear significant to both authors and historians. It is likely that
when writing a historical novel an author would stress the plotline and
sometimes lose track of the accuracy, whereas a historian would be looking to
include historically accurate information and forget about the story. This is why
the question of truth is essential when assessing the importance of Historical
Fiction. When writing Historical Fiction the author must research information
about the historical event and time period. It is hard to distinguish between an
author historicizing fiction and fictionalising history. Both history and fiction are
open to interpretation this leads to historical inaccuracies. Also all historical
sources contain bias and therefore Historical Fiction is based on the source
which may be contain prejudice. The Historical Novel Society defines Historical
Fiction as a genre as:
“a novel 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.” The HNS partially
eliminates the bias that may be shown by an author if they were alive for the
event. Predispositions and attitudes that may have been widespread at the time
may die down over fifty years or if the author did not witness the event, this
ensures the author writes the history purely through research.
A clear understanding of the value of Historical Fiction can be grasped by looking
at the question of how important is accuracy and is it right to leave out
information. Authors often leave out information based on their own opinions
and preferences. main motive for authors leaving out information is when the
historical event or period involves immoral; behaviour or graphic cruelty.
Writers do so to protect the reader from the horrors of history. The problem
with this habit is it results in an end product that may not be a clear
representation of history and the time.
When writing about history one must always aim for accuracy, without it the
novel may lose credibility and effectiveness. Authors and historians will research
extensively their time period to ensure believability and success in the genre. It
has been said that the any language is an constantly changing, evolving over the
generations. This poses a large problem for writers, where they have to research
old vocabularies and be extra careful not to use modern day words that would
become anachronisms in their novel.
This problem of accuracy is intensified if the author chooses to narrate from
first-person; if the narration is completely accurate the interest of reader’s will
be lost, but if it maintains the attention of reader’s it may lose it’s relevance. Also
diary entries place additional restraints on the freedom of the author to write a
novel. A higher level of accuracy is harder to attain because the opinions and
attitudes of the person must be similar to a person who lived at the time. The
character’s beliefs, gender role and actions must all be accurate and not
sacrificed for the sake of a plotline.
After looking at the problems of history, it is also imperative to examine its
purpose as a historical tool and as a novel. Firstly, from a historical perspective readers of historical fiction can increase their knowledge of a particular event or
time in history through reading a historical novel. As highlighted by
Indiebookspot.com’s interview with novelist Christine Keleny, “if you like to learn
a bit when you read, you’ll enjoy my books.” Through the research and
presentation of factual information within a historical novel, readers will be able
to learn key points about the event in addition to gaining a unique insight into
the daily life of a civilization through the author’s creative power and
imagination. Furthermore, through gaining a greater insight into a section of
history, they will potentially attain an interest into the event not possible
through simply reading on the event by way of a non-fiction story. “People who
would not pick up a narrative history book will perhaps pick up a novel and find
their interest engaged by predicaments from the past.” – Geraldine Brooks.
Historical novels can be considered a powerful tool if they are able to
successfully encourage readers to study history, and may embolden further
reading and research into a particular section of history. This reading may
include additional historical novels on a section of history, and members of the
public will moreover will be able to make critical judgements on that historical
period or event, assuming that the historical novels they read presents a nonbias information.
From a fictional viewpoint a (good) historical fiction may provide readers with
an entertaining story that integrates intelligent characters, a clever plot in
addition with a historical setting. Writing a novel with a historical base allows
authors to delve in an almost fantasy world, and assuming strict historical
accuracy is maintained authors are able to use imagination and creative power in
their creation of characters and conversation. However, unlike a fantasy novel,
the historical fiction book will be set on true events, and this may add as a
further attraction to readers.