Novelists and their history

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between history and the writing of historical and speculative fiction through discussion of the methods writers use to build history into a novel, the writing techniques fiction authors use to indicate the past and the understanding of the author's relationship with history.

Keywords::

• historiography
• fiction
• historical fiction
• time travel
• historical discourse

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Professor Van Ikin of the University of Western Australia and to the novelists consulted for this project.

Notes

^1. For discussion of this from the position of the narratives of historians, see Munslow (2011).

^2. Where no reference is given, discussion concerning these writers is from these interviews.

^3. To clarify, I refer to history (i.e. narratives) not the past. I am assuming that this is generally derived from historical narratives. My assumption comes from questions concerning the nature of their research posed to this group of writers, where almost all writers used historical narratives for their main understanding of a place and time

^4. Hellekson's (2001) work on uchronia or alternate history is important in this regard.

^5. For instance Willis (1994, 57) when she discusses a child who is already married.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gillian Polack

Gillian Polack is a novel writer and an historian, currently based in Canberra, Australia. Her most recently published novel is Ms Cellophane (Momentum Books, 2012) and her most recent non-fiction book is Five Historical Feasts (Conflux, 2011).