Constructing a World: Shakespeare's England and the New Historical Fiction

217 Pages·2002·0.94 MB·English

by  Martha Tuck Rozett

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CONSTRUCTING A WORLD
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Constructing
Shakespeare’s
A England and the
New Historical
World
Fiction
Martha Tuck Rozett
(cid:1)
_______________ _______________
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
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Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise
without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address State University of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production by Marilyn P. Semerad
Marketing by Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rozett, Martha Tuck, 1946–
Constructing a world : Shakespeare’s England and the new historical fiction / Martha
Tuck Rozett.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–7914–5551–3 (acid-free paper) — ISBN 0–7914–5552–1 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. Historical fiction, English—History and criticism. 2. Great
Britain—History—Elizabeth, 1558–1603—Historiography. 3. Elizabeth I, Queen of
England, 1533–1603—In literature. 4. American fiction—20th century—History and
criticism. 5. English fiction—20th century—History and criticism. 6. Historical fiction,
American—History and criticism. 7. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—In literature. 8.
Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Adaptations. 9. England—In literature. I. Title.
PR888.H5 R69 2002
823´.0810903—dc21
2002024049
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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In Memoriam: Eugene Tuck 1909–2000
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1. Introduction: Historical Fiction Old and New 1
Chapter 2. Of Narrators; or How the Teller Tells the Tale 27
Chapter 3. Historical Novelists at Work: George Garrett and
Anthony Burgess 49
Chapter 4. Barry Unsworth’s Morality Playand the Origins of
English Secular Drama 83
Chapter 5. Fictional Queen Elizabeths and Women-Centered
Historical Fiction 103
Chapter 6. Rewriting Shakespeare: The Henriad with and
without Falstaff 143
Chapter 7. Teaching Shakespeare’s England through Historical
Fiction 165
Notes 177
Works Cited 185
Index 199
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Acknowledgments
P arts of chapters 1 and 2 originally appeared as “Constructing a
World: How the Postmodern Historical Fiction Reimagines the Past”
in Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History (25.2,
Winter 1996); part of chapter 7 originally appeared as “Creating a Context
for Shakespeare with Historical Fiction” in Shakespeare Quarterly (46.2,
Summer 1995); and the Marlowe Society of America kindly invited me to
present part of chapter 4 at the meeting of the Modern Language Associa-
tion in December 2000. I would like to thank the many friends and students
who have talked with me about historical fiction over the years and referred
me to books and articles I might not otherwise have encountered. I am espe-
cially grateful to Cynthia Mahamdi, Candace Murray, Jeffrey Gibson, Carey
Cummings, Monica Bishop, David Birch, and Helene Scheck. I would also
like to thank the novelists George Garrett and Barry Unsworth for their will-
ingness to discuss the historical novelist’s craft. My friends and colleagues
Judith Barlow, Randall Craig, and Jennifer Fleischner, and my brother,
Jonathan Tuck, read early drafts of the manuscript or parts thereof; I have
tried to follow their wise counsel. The staff at the State University of New
York Press provided invaluable editorial assistance and, as always, my hus-
band John Rozett was a generous and forbearing resource on technical mat-
ters.
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