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| Exploring the Creation of Fictional Worlds |
The problem with historical fiction: Strangeness
by Carolyn Hughes
What is this “strangeness”?
It refers to the otherness of past times, those aspects of life, in particular
mindsets and behaviours, that are unfamiliar or obscure to the modern reader.
So it will include differences in attitudes and beliefs but also, for an
historical novel set in the mediaeval period, such things as superstition,
religious charms, dreams, magic and spells, monsters and mediaeval art
(illuminations, misericords, church paintings), strange ideas and seemingly
fantastical happenings that today could be readily explained or dismissed – all
of which were normal to people of the time.
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| Maastricht Book of Hours, ca. 1300-1325, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
In other periods, the
list might be a bit different, but would still include those things that make
that period seem “other” to our own.
Strangeness is
important in an historical novel, but must perhaps not overwhelm. As Jerome de
Groot has said, by exploring the differences of the past compared to the
present, historical fiction can make the past ‘authentically unfamiliar’,
and yet still recognisable to modern readers.1
The people we
encounter on the pages of historical novels are of course familiar to us in
many ways: they are mothers and fathers, farmers and carpenters, soldiers and
merchants, people with families and concerns and feelings much like our own.
But their environment, their habits, their attitudes and beliefs are mostly
very different, and it is this dissimilarity, as well as the
familiarity, that an historical novelist seeks to portray. Sarah Johnson
describes this as making “the unfamiliar seem familiar”, and the one must be as
carefully managed as the other.2
However, it is perhaps
true that not all historical novelists are entirely successful at achieving
this. I imagine we have all read novels that we thought didn’t seem quite “right”
for the period, in particular where characters seemed to have far too modern a
mindset – overly liberated women, unbelievably “new” men...
In Clio’s Children, a blog for historical novelists, the writer John Yeoman proposes an interesting split between types of historical fiction. One kind, he says, “depicts modern people, sensibilities and conflicts but…cloaks them expediently with props from history’s wardrobe: ruffs and farthingales, gibbets and jousts; the other exposes the reader to a profound whiff of strangeness” 3
Yeoman cites a number
of novels where, in his view, strangeness can be found, including Umberto Eco’s
The Name of the Rose, and I would guess that most of us would agree that
the world in Eco’s novel is decidedly “other”.
On the other hand, Yeoman says ‘we do not
find it in Philippa Gregory’. He refers to The Other Boleyn Girl as ‘a
sentimental blend of history and kitsch’, so one must assume that, for him,
this novel falls into the “props” category.
However, I must say
that Yeoman insists that he is not implying any value judgment in defining the
two types, rather just illustrating the differences between them. And it is of
course true that readers get a huge amount of pleasure from all types of historical
fiction, so is any lack of strangeness a “problem” at all?
I have seen it said:
that we living in the present can never fully understand the inner lives of
people living in the past and therefore may not be able to portray their
thoughts and voices with any degree of authenticity; that historical fiction is
in itself a contradiction, lies pretending to be the truth; and that some
historical novels fail to reflect the strangeness of the past, dressing their
characters in authentic-looking clothes but giving them modern sensibilities.
In general, I do not
believe that historical fiction suffers from such “problems” any more than any
other type of fiction. Indeed, I feel that these problems might equally apply
to many types of contemporary fiction. For example, in science fiction,
thrillers, murder mysteries and fantasy, novelists attempt to portray all sorts
of characters’ inner lives that neither they nor the reader could actually
experience. All novels of whatever genre are essentially “untrue” – they are
fiction! Even the need for strangeness is not confined to historical fiction,
but is required in any novel portraying a world, in time or space, that is
different from readers’ usual experience.
Having said all that,
when I started writing, I did have some concerns about my own ability to
produce an historical novel with sufficient authenticity and strangeness. For,
although I was reasonably confident about describing the practicalities of the
past, I remained nervous that I might fail to portray my characters’ inner
lives truthfully, that they might seem to be modern rather than people of their
time, and that the world I was attempting to evoke might not be sufficiently “other”.
Whether I have
succeeded or failed is for others to say, but I would be interested to hear any
thoughts from fellow historical fiction writers about their own experiences of
portraying earlier times.
(Note: I discuss this and other aspects of writing historical fiction in my PhD thesis, Authenticity and alterity: Evoking the fourteenth century in fiction, University of Southampton, Faculty of Humanities, 2015 <http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/383484/>)
1. Jerome de Groot, The Historical Novel (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010), p.3.
2. Sarah L. Johnson, Historical Fiction: A Guide to the Genre (Westport:
Libraries Unlimited Inc., 2005), p.5.
3. John Yeoman, ‘How do we define ‘historical fiction’? A modest proposal’, Clio’s Children (25th April 2010) <clioschildren.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/how-do-we-define-historical-fiction.html>
CAROLYN HUGHES started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession, but it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, word-smithing for many different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.
She’d written creatively for most of her adult life but, when her children flew the nest, writing historical fiction took centre stage. But why historical fiction? Serendipity! Seeking inspiration for her Masters project, she found a decades-old, handwritten draft of a novel, set in fourteenth century rural England… Captivated by the era and setting, she concluded that, by writing a novel set in the period, she could both discover the medieval past and interpret it – surely a thrilling thing to do! The first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, was soon under way…
Eight published books later, Carolyn does now think of herself as an Historical Novelist. And she wouldn’t have it any other way…
Website: https://carolynhughesauthor.com
Twitter/X: x.com/writingcalliope
Facebook: facebook.com/CarolynHughesAuthor
Bluesky: carolynhughes.bsky.social
Fortune’s Wheel, the First Meonbridge Chronicle
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