The Historical Novel for Youth: In Search of National Identity Via the Adaptation of a New Genre

1994 ◽  
pp. 72-77
Author(s):  
Nitsa Ben Ari
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel

scholarly journals Een pasgeboren staat, of een recentelijk ontwaakte natie?

1970 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 5-22
Author(s):  
Nele Bemong
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
International Community ◽  
Historical Novels ◽  
The Creation

Between 1830 and 1850, practically out of nowhere there came into beinga truly 'Belgian' literature, written boch in Flemish and in French, but aimedat a single goal: the creation of a Belgian past and the conscruction of aBelgian national identity. The historical novel played a crucial role in thisconscruction and representation of a collective memory for the Belgian statejust out of the cradle. The prefaces to these historical novels are characterizedboth by the central role granted to the representacion of Flanders as the cradleof nineteenth-century Belgium, and by the organically and religiously inspiredimagery. Attempts were made to create an intimate genealogical relationshipwith the forefathers, in order to make the Belgian citizens feel closer to theirrich heritage. Through the activation of specific recollections from theimmense archive of the collective cultural memory, Belgian independencefound its legitimization both towards the international community andtowards the Belgian people.

scholarly journals The Difficulty of Historical Work in the Nineteenth-Century Museum and the Thackeray Novel

2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dehn Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
The Past ◽  
Important Impact ◽  
Full Reconstruction ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times

This essay suggests that conservation debates occasioned by the democratization of the nineteenth-century museum had an important impact on William Makepeace Thackeray’s reimagination of the historical novel. Both the museum and the historical novel had traditionally made it their mission to present the past to an ever-widening public, and thus necessarily to preserve it. But in the middle of the nineteenth century, the museum and the novel also shared the experience of seeming to endanger precisely what they sought to protect, and as they tried to choose how aggressive to be in their conserving measures, they had to deliberate about the costs and benefits of going after the full reconstruction (the novel) or restoration (the museum) of what once had been. The first part of this essay shows how people fretted about the relation of conservation, destruction, and national identity at the museum, in The Times and in special Parliamentary sessions alike; the second part of the essay traces how Thackeray drew on the resulting debates in novels including The Newcomes (1853–55) and The History of Henry Esmond (1852), as he looked for a way to revivify the historical novel after it had gone out of fashion. He invoked broken statues and badly restored pictures as he navigated his own worries that he might be doing history all wrong, and damaging its shape in the process.

Authorizing the Novel

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Ferris
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
Waverley Novels ◽  
National Romance

Walter Scott’s historical novel achieved unprecedented success, and almost single-handedly propelled the novel as a genre into the literary field. A potent synthesis of history, romance, theory, and antiquarianism, the Waverley Novels rewrote contemporary modes of historical and national romance through a thematic of the heterogeneity of historical time. They answered to a new historical sensibility in a post-Revolutionary era of expanding readership; helped to forge a new British national identity; and were instrumental in reconfiguring literary culture for their time.

God, King and Country: The Depiction of National Identity in Danish Historical Novels for Children

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA KARLSKOV SKYGGEBJERG
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Historical Novels ◽  
National History ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
Hayden White

This article charts the depiction of national identity in the historical novel for children. The introduction defines the historical novel in general (with a review of theories by Georg Lukács and Hayden White), and then reflects upon the function of this genre in children's literature (drawing on studies by John Stephens, Åsfrid Svensen and Anna Adamik Jáscó). To cast light on the structure and development of national identity there is an analysis of two Danish historical novels for children: Marius Dahlsgaard's Thorkilds Træl[Thorkild's slave] (1932) and Lars-Henrik Olsen's Sagaen om Svend Pindehugger [The saga of Svend Pindehugger] (1993). These books deal with the same historical event – the conquest of Estonia in the thirteenth-century – and both novels are based on a national historical legend about the Danish flag. The article argues that the historical novel for children has moved away from purely heroic images and eulogies of king and nation, but is still rooted in national history and incorporates a strong emphasis on power relations fought out in wars.

scholarly journals Mapear os significados contestados da identidade nacional angolana através da literatura pós-colonial

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Carolina Barros Tavares Peixoto
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
White Settlers ◽  
The Right ◽  
Present Case Study

Resumo: O romance histórico Yaka, de Pepetela, narra o último século de administração portuguesa em Angola e as múltiplas resistências das populações nativas à ocupação colonial até a conquista da independência. Na construção da nação angolana, o pano de fundo do romance, uma narrativa sutil surge nas entrelinhas. Esse espaço liminar de representação articula as dificuldades de definição do que se tornaria representativo de uma ideia, ou um ideal, de “angolanidade” que foi construída concomitantemente à projeção da nação. A complexidade do enquadramento político e cultural que definiria a identidade nacional angolana decorre das experiências da história colonial, que, mais do que (re)inventar as fronteiras do que viria a ser a geografia política do país em busca da independência, teve um papel fundamental na definição do que constituiria o povo angolano – seja colocando juntos diferentes povos que originalmente habitaram esse vasto território, ou pelo assentamento de uma quantidade significativa de colonizadores brancos nos espaços conquistados. Depois de tantos anos de histórias e memórias compartilhadas entre colonizadores e colonizados, que características seriam consideradas como fontes legítimas de pertencimento nacional? Que fronteiras demarcaram a “angolanidade” funcionando como base para a construção da identidade nacional angolana? Quem teria direito à cidadania após o processo de independência? Estas questões orientaram o presente estudo de caso, que, ao ler Yaka como um romance histórico constitutivo das narrativas angolanas de pertencimento elaboradas já em uma conjuntura pós-colonial, reflete sobre os processos de exclusão/inclusão da população não negra na construção de uma ideia ou ideal de “angolanidade”.Palavras-chave: Pepetela; angolanidade; pertencimento; identidade nacional.Abstract: Pepetela's historical novel Yaka narrates the last century of Portuguese colonial presence in Angola and the multiple forms of resistance of native populations to colonial occupation until the conquest of independence. In the construction of the Angolan nation, the background of the novel, a subtle narrative appears between the lines. This liminal space of representation articulates the difficulties of defining what would become representative of an idea or an ideal of “Angolanity” that was constructed concomitantly with the projection of the Nation. The complexity of the political and cultural framework that would define Angolan national identity stems from the experiences of colonial history, which, more than (re)inventing the borders of what would become Angolan political geography, played a fundamental role in defining what would constitute the Angolan people – by putting together different peoples who originally inhabited this vast territory, or by the settlement of a significant population of white settlers in the conquered spaces. After so many years of stories and memories shared between colonizers and colonized, what characteristics would be considered as legitimate sources of national belonging? What frontiers demarcated the “Angolanity”, functioning as a basis for the construction of Angolan national identity? Who would have the right to citizenship after the independence process? These questions guided the present case study which, reading Yaka as a historical novel constitutive of the Angolan narratives of belonging elaborated in a postcolonial conjuncture, reflects on the processes of exclusion/inclusion of the non-black population in the construction of an idea or ideal of “Angolanity”.Keywords: Pepetela; angolanity; belonging; national identity.

For God and Empire

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Fiction ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Religious Controversy ◽  
Active Contribution

This chapter examines the Victorian conceptualization of history and of the historical novel as a genre of fiction by situating novels of the Roman Empire within four interconnected polemical contexts to which they made an active contribution: religion, history, national identity, and politics. It begins with a story about Fred W. Farrar, who embodies so fully what is at stake with historical fiction—not least through the normative thrust of his diverse but interconnected writings. For what makes these novels of the Roman Empire so interesting is precisely what Farrar's collected works offer in germ: the heady combination of religious controversy, the power of nationalist narrative coupled with self-conscious debate about the reach and aim of Empire, the educational anxiety and idealism attached to classical antiquity, the heightened appreciation of history in the age of progress. Such fiction about the Roman Empire and the origins of Christianity raised deeply worrying and interconnected questions for their Victorian audiences.

scholarly journals Bułgarzy „dotykają” historii — rola przeszłości historycznej w bułgarskim odrodzeniu narodowym

2016 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Wojciech Jóźwiak
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
Discovery Learning ◽  
Community Ties ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Historical Past

Bulgarians “are touching” their history — the role of historical past in the Bulgarian national revivalThe nineteenth-century national revival in Bulgaria can be described, above all, as aperiod of building national identity and ethnic community ties. The origin of such aprocess was the fact that Bulgarians decided to turn to their long forgotten past. The process of discovery, learning and becoming aware by “touching” using all the senses symbolically began with the Paisij Chilendarski’s text. It became the key element of along list of Bulgarian literary and journalistic works that were ingrained in the ideology of rebirth and revival and laid strong foundations for the first Bulgarian historical novel by Lyuben Karavelov, published between 1873 and 1874.Bugari „dodiruju” istoriju — uloga istorijske prošlosti u bugarskom nacionalnom preporoduDevetnaestovekovni nacionalni preporod je pre svega period građenja bugarskog nacionalnog identiteta iosećaja etničkog zajedništva. Osnova tog procesa bilo je okretanje ka, sasvim zaboravljenoj, istorijskoj prošlosti, čije je otkrivanje, upoznavanje, „dodirivanje” svim čulima, simbolički započeto tekstom Pajsija Hilandarskog, postalo ključni element niza bugarskih književnih ipublicističkih tekstova kao dela preporodne ideologije, akao rezultat toga Luben Karavelov godine 1873–1874 objavljuje prvi bugarski istorijski roman. 

Anglo-Saxonism and the Victorian Novel

2020 ◽  
pp. 631-653
Author(s):  
Joanne Parker
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Sir Walter Scott ◽  
Victorian Novel ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Walter Scott ◽  
Literary Origins

This chapter argues for the interest and importance of Anglo-Saxonist novels when analysing questions of identity in Victorian Britain. Focusing on the nineteenth century’s two longest works of literary Anglo-Saxonism—Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1848 historical novel Harold and Charles Kingsley’s 1866 Hereward the Wake—it reveals that, contrary to contemporary opinion, these works do not assert, but rather question and investigate, simplistic notions of national identity. Both books are often dismissed as simply poor imitations of the earlier work of Sir Walter Scott. The chapter traces their literary origins to well before Scott; argues that the texts differ importantly from Scott’s work, in ways that can tell us much about the mid-nineteenth century; and reveals how the books intersect in important ways with other manifestations of Victorian medievalism, and have also had an important legacy in the medievalism of the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.

scholarly journals Mutiny Echoes: India, Britons, and Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities

2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
PRITI JOSHI
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
National Identity ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Charles Dickens ◽  
Historical Novel ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Indian Mutiny ◽  
British Culture ◽  
The French Revolution

This essay asks what, if any, import the Indian ““Mutiny”” of 1857 had on A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Charles Dickens�s fictionalized account of the French Revolution. Begun shortly after the Indian uprising started, Dickens�s historical novel appears studiously to avoid any mention of events on the Indian subcontinent, even though these events preoccupied and enraged the author. Few scholars have attended to the question of A Tale of Two Cities and the ““Mutiny,”” but when they have, scholars have looked for analogies between India and Dickens�s account of the French Revolution. In this essay, by contrast, I examine A Tale of Two Cities in a larger context——of Britons' response to the Uprising, of Dickens's short stories and essays in Household Words in the years before the ““Mutiny”” and immediately after, of Dickens's disenchantment with aspects of British culture, and of his need to articulate a national identity grounded in action. I argue that the events in India were the match that ignited Dickens's already established midcentury interests in national identity, nobility, and masculine heroism. I do not wish to suggest that A Tale of Two Cities is an Indian ““Mutiny”” novel, but rather that it is a novel about the ““Making of Britons,”” an important endeavor for an author who was intensely dissatisfied with the Britain that he saw around him.

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