Reading Historical Fiction: The Revenant and Remembered Past

256 Pages·2013·1.462 MB·English

by  Kate Mitchell, Nicola Parsons (eds.)

Reading Historical Fiction
AlsobyKateMitchell
HISTORYANDCULTURALMEMORYINNEO-VICTORIANFICTION
VictorianAfterimages
AlsobyNicolaParsons
READINGGOSSIPINEARLYEIGHTEENTH-CENTURYENGLAND
BothpublishedbyPalgraveMacmillan
Reading Historical Fiction
The Revenant and Remembered Past
Editedby
Kate Mitchell
AustralianNationalUniversity
and
Nicola Parsons
UniversityofSydney
Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Kate Mitchell and Nicola
Parsons2013
Individualchapters©contributors2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-34313-9
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Contents
ListofIllustrations vii
Acknowledgements viii
NotesonContributors ix
1 ReadingtheRepresentedPast:HistoryandFictionfrom
1700tothePresent 1
KateMitchellandNicolaParsons
2 LearningtoReadthePastintheEarlyHistoricalNovel 19
AnneH.Stevens
3 TemporalSystemsinRepresentationsofthePast:Distance,
FreedomandIronyinHistoricalFiction 33
HamishDalley
4 ‘AllHistoriesAreAgainstYou?’:FamilyHistory,Domestic
HistoryandtheFemininePastinNorthangerAbbeyand
Persuasion 50
MarySpongberg
5 RereadingHogarthandPope:AuthenticityandAcademic
FictionsoftheEighteenthCentury 67
JamesWard
6 PanoramicByron:Reading,HistoryandPre-cinematic
Spectacle 85
HelenGroth
7 ‘ThePaintedRecord’inGeorgeEliot’sHistoricalNovel
Romola 101
KaraMarler-Kennedy
8 ReadingandRememberingHistoryinDanielDefoe’s
AJournalofthePlagueYear 119
NicolaParsons
9 TheGothicReader:History,FearandTrembling 136
DianaWallace
v
vi Contents
10 NotesTowardsaPoethicsofSpectrality:TheExamples
ofNeo-VictorianTextuality 153
JulianWolfreys
11 DickensandWaysofSeeingtheFrenchRevolution:ATale
ofTwoCities 172
JonMee
12 TheUsesofHistory:TheHistoricalNovelinthe
Post-FrenchRevolutionDebateandEllisCorneliaKnight’s
MarcusFlaminius(1792) 187
FionaPrice
13 TheLivingPastandtheFellowshipofSacrificialViolence
inWilliamMorris’sADreamofJohnBall 204
IngridHanson
Bibliography 220
Index 240
Illustrations
Jacket:GottfriedEichler,theYounger,Meditatio(1758–1760),reproduced
bypermissionoftheGettyResearchInstitute,LosAngeles(93-B7426)
8.1 JohnBell,London’sRemembrancer(London,1665),t.p.,
reproducedbypermissionoftheHuntingtonLibrary,San
Marino,California 126
8.2 JohnGraunt,London’sDreadfulVisitation(London,1665),
t.p.,reproducedbypermissionoftheClarkLibrary,UCLA 127
vii
Acknowledgements
This collection would not have been possible without the support and
assistance of a number of individuals and institutions. We are espe-
cially gratefultothe Schoolof Letters,Art and Media at the University
of Sydney for funding that supported the initial stages of this project.
We’d both like to thank our colleagues at the Australian National Uni-
versityandtheUniversityofSydneyrespectivelyfortheirinterestinand
engagementwiththiscollection.
We have been fortunate in our two anonymous press readers, and
the readers of each individual essay, whose suggestions facilitated the
developmentofthisproject.WewouldalsoliketothankPaulaKennedy
andBenDoyleatPalgravefortheireditorialadviceandwarmsupport.
InSydney,specialthanksalsogotoAmandaCrawford.
OurthankstoStephenTaborattheHuntingtonLibrary,ScottJacobs
attheClarkLibraryandKateRalstonattheGettyResearchInstitutewho
kindlyfacilitatedthebusinessofobtainingillustrations.
Finally, we would like to thank each of our contributors for making
thisprojectagenuineconversation.
viii
Contributors
Hamish DalleyisaPhDstudentattheResearchSchoolofHumanities
and the Arts, Australian National University. His doctoral research
focusesonthepostcolonialhistoricalnovel,withanemphasisonwrit-
ing from Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand. Related interests include
literary realism, the relation between history and fiction, nationalism,
and utopian imaginaries. In 2012 his study of writing by New Zealand
author Witi Ihimaera, ‘“The Continuum of the World Corrected”:
Allegorical Form and (Trans)National Communities in the Historical
Fiction of Witi Ihimaera’, was published by Clio: A Journal of History,
LiteratureandthePhilosophyofHistory.
HelenGrothisAssociateProfessorandARCFutureFellowintheSchool
of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales. She is
the author of Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia (2003), Mov-
ing Images: Nineteenth Century Reading and Screen Practices (2013), and,
withNatalyaLusty,DreamsandModernity:ACulturalHistory(2013).She
has also recently co-edited a special issue of Textual Practice with Paul
Sheehan,‘TheUsesofAnachronism’.
Ingrid Hanson gained her PhD in 2011 at the University of Sheffield,
where she now teaches part-time. She is currently completing her first
monograph,whicharisesfromherthesisonWilliamMorrisandconsid-
erstherelationshipoftheideaofviolenceinMorris’swritingstoother
literary and cultural constructions of violence and war. Previous publi-
cations include articles on aspects of Morris’s work in Review of English
StudiesandEnglish.Herresearchinterestsextendacrosstheliteratureof
politicalviolence,warandpeaceinthelongnineteenthcentury.Sheis
currently researching a new project on the body and the idea of peace
in Victorian and Edwardian literature and culture, from Quaker tracts
andstoriesforchildrentotheanti-BoerWarwritingsofW.T.Steadand
OliveSchreiner.
Kara Marler-Kennedy gained her PhD in 2010 in the English Depart-
ment at Rice University, Houston, Texas. Her dissertation, entitled
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