The novelist as historian: Essays on the Victorian historical novel

On the shelf : women writers, publishing and philanthropy in mid-nineteenth-century England

The challenges of contemporary-history-writing were brought into relief in Britain in the nineteenth century Philosophical and pragmatic factors made the recent past a subject of discomfort for historians, but popular with novelists Changing concepts of time and social value made it more difficult to draw boundaries on the remit of historiography, and to decide which individuals were worthy of inclusion As a period still present in diverse living memories, the recent past was associated with multiplicity and particularity, in an era that valued grand and singular narratives, and looked to history to provide them
This was exacerbated in the later Victorian period by the establishment of history as a university discipline Historians sought professional credibility, and thus avoided including the as-yet inconclusive recent past in their national histories Those historians who did incorporate it often struggled to maintain a consistent tone, seeking overview while aware of their lack of hindsight They resorted to the trope of ‘nation’ to impose apparent social unity
By contrast, the recent past was popular with novelists This more personal genre enabled mid-century women writers to write provincial and localised narratives By using polyphonic and ironic narrators, they commented on history without claiming definitive judgement, and gave voice to ‘unhistoric’ individuals They included women, however, more successfully than they did the working class
At the end of the century, socialist writers seeking social transformation set utopian fictions in the future, enabling them to look back with an imaginary hindsight, and write contemporary history with impunity They were, however, still faced with the problem of agency The quasi-religious significance that had earlier been attributed to ‘History’ was now transferred to the collective These genres, therefore, all offered different opportunities for contemporary-history-writing, but could not solve its intrinsic challenges

Victorian negotiations with the recent past : history, fiction, utopia

﻿ This thesis examines a practice of nineteenth-century novelists which has often been mentioned by critics but never studied in detail - the setting of much of their work in a period a generation or two before the time of writing. Its main focus is on the fiction of George Eliot set in the recent past: Scenes of Clerical Life (1857-58), Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Felix Holt, The Radical (1866), and Middlemarch (1871-72). However I begin by looking briefly at the pioneering novel in the field, Waverley (1814), and go on to discuss three more novels by Scott - Guy Mannering (1815), The Antiquary (1816) and Redgauntlet (1824) - as well as three by Thackeray: Vanity Fair (1847-48), Pendennis (1848-50) and The Newcomes (1853-55). Since I aim to discover the attitudes these writers adopted to the recent past, and conveyed to their first readers, this study involves discussion not only of the periods in which the novels are set, but also of the periods in which they were written, so as to establish the knowledge and preconceptions which the books' early readers brought to bear on the fiction. Where possible I quote the responses of actual contemporary readers, notably those of the early reviewers. This thesis draws attention to the various functions a setting in the recent past could serve in nineteenth-century fiction: to arouse nostalgic feelings for a vanished but remembered past, or sympathy for the people of the past, to point out that change is sometimes more apparent than real, to comment obliquely on contemporary issues, to highlight the unchanging features of human nature and human predicaments, to examine the role of the individual in effecting change.

The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot

This thesis aims to interrogate the role and representation of the United States presidency, presidential figures and avatars, and the question of executive power more generally, in the works of Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy. Observing a gap in current criticism of these authors, and American literature generally, I propose that the presidency/executive provides a new and important way of mapping these authors’ work. In this I seek to build on Sean McCann’s work on this area in A Pinnacle of Feeling. My project situates itself in a historical framework, investigating the extensive network of historical evidence that each author uses in their conception of and dialogue with the presidency and executive power. My argument takes Pynchon’s portrayal of George Washington, the United States’ semi-mythical first president, in Mason & Dixon as its starting point, then proceeds to consider a range of texts before finally discussing the presence of Ronald Reagan and the rise of corporate power in McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. I posit that in each of these authors’ work, the executive power is present simultaneously as an embodied and a “phantom” force, shaping the narrative and subjective individual experiences even when characters are not expressly engaged in political activity. A complex relay between embodied and phantom forces is apparent, with the identity and even physicality of individual presidential figures and avatars substantially affecting the operation of this power, amid a nuanced dialogue with the nation’s historical narrative. This dynamic occurs across these authors’ work, although they have divergent political and literary approaches. This thesis aims finally to establish this framework of executive power as a fundamental aspect of these authors’ writing that is vital to understanding their thinking about the United States, its history, and socio-political context, which could ultimately be extended to many other cultural and literary texts and their producers.

'The same authority as God' : the U.S. presidency and executive power in the works of Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy

Rosenstone's work has been central to the growth of film and history studies in South Africa. It is argued that for some African history films, useful gradations can be made within and between Rosenstone's categories of ‘mainstream’ (Hollywood) or ‘innovative’ (self-consciously oppositional to Hollywood) dramas. To this end, films like Lumumba, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond and Red Dust are explored in terms of differing production values, editing styles, political tone, use of language, casting policies and choice of protagonists. Rosenstone's insights into the nature of history on film suggest why such history might sometimes offer more acceptable visions of the past than historiography for students of history in highly divided societies like South Africa.

The novelist as historian: Essays on the Victorian historical novel

Citations

On the shelf : women writers, publishing and philanthropy in mid-nineteenth-century England

Victorian negotiations with the recent past : history, fiction, utopia

The treatment of the recent past in nineteenth-century fiction, with particular reference to George Eliot

'The same authority as God' : the U.S. presidency and executive power in the works of Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy

Rosenstone on film, Rosenstone on history: An African perspective