[bookshare-discuss] Attention. Journey through History Participants
- From: David <walemly@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "'aw-announcements'" <aw-announcements@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2021 22:51:04 -0600
Greetings from David early in 2021;
Alan has kindly agreed to forward this email from me which includes information
from the Reading the Past blog about a book that discusses historic fiction. I
checked with the blogger, Sarah Johnson and she had no problems with my sharing
this.
Thank you for your continued interest in my thrice yearly historic fiction
discussions.
David
Subject: Reading the Past
<https://readingthepast.blogspot.com/> Reading the Past
_____
<https://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2020/12/interview-with-gillian-polack-author-of.html>
Interview with Gillian Polack, author of History and Fiction: Writers, their
Research, Worlds, and Stories
Posted: 15 Dec 2020 07:17 AM PST
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lwemhnn8VxU/X9aAJRfdqLI/AAAAAAAAHyM/-2IdtJC5nnUCAZNlgTndlbRzgM4sB_UBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s297/history%2Band%2Bfiction%2Bcover.jpg>
Description: Image removed by sender.
I'm pleased to have Dr. Gillian Polack here today for a Q&A about her book
History and Fiction: Writers, their Research, Worlds, and Stories, which is
newly out in paperback from <https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/36701> Peter
Lang ($22.95/£15.00). I'm glad to see it finally available in this format,
since this will encourage more individual readers and writers to check it out
and pick up their own copies.
History and Fiction takes an in-depth look at the varied approaches that
fiction writers take in incorporating history into their stories. This can
depend on many factors, including the genre they're writing, the demands of the
marketplace, their emotional involvement with their chosen subject or period,
and more.
Gillian's background and expertise give her a unique perspective on the complex
history-fiction relationship. A scholar based in Canberra, Australia, she
writes historical and speculative fiction and has doctorates in both Medieval
History and Creative Writing. Her research for the book was based on interviews
she conducted with a wide spectrum of authors. I first reviewed History and
Fiction
<https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/history-and-fiction-writers-their-research-worlds-and-stories/>
for the Historical Novels Review in 2016 and was impressed by its insights. As
I wrote in the original review, "This study will be an essential read for genre
scholars, but the accessible writing style extends its appeal beyond academic
circles. Historical novelists can consult it for deeper insight into their own
writing and research choices, while anyone curious about how authors bring the
past to life through fiction will come away with considerable knowledge of what
goes into the crafting of the novels they enjoy."
I hope you'll enjoy this Q&A. Please visit Gillian's website at
<https://gillianpolack.com> https://gillianpolack.com for more background on ;
her research and writings.
How did you first get the idea to write this book?
The relationships between history and different types of story are one of my
lifelong interests. When I became a fiction writer, I read the scholarship on
how history relates to novels and found a hole. I researched to fill the hole
(mainly for my own benefit) and writers asked if I could explain my research to
them, and History and Fiction was the result.
One of the book’s highlights, for me, was the honest commentary provided by the
many authors you interviewed, and your analysis of their thoughts. How did you
decide which authors to talk to?
I sent out a request through my networks for authors who had an interest in the
Middle Ages to answer questions for my research. From those who expressed
willingness, I chose those who represented the biggest possible range of author
experience. I didn't want to focus on only famous authors or on a group of
writers who were all as yet unpublished. I wanted a clear cross-section of
experience and interest.
Why the Middle Ages? My first doctorate was in Medieval History, so I had the
best skills for evaluating answers relating to knowledge and sources used by
focusing on that period. I admit, having the Middle Ages as a focal point also
gained me responses from a wider range of writers, for some writers back then
knew me as a Medievalist and others as a writer of science fiction and fantasy.
I appreciated the broad focus on the types of authors who incorporate history
in their fiction. This may be an American thing, but there doesn’t seem to be
significant overlap between writers of historical fiction and speculative
fiction, or their readerships – even though storytelling and detailed
world-building are important to both genres, and authors of both are frequently
inspired by real-world history. I was a fantasy reader long before I was a
historical fiction reader – one genre led me to another – though that doesn’t
seem typical. The genres diverge, of course, on the type of research involved,
the purposes of the research, the level of historical accuracy, and other
factors, as you’ve explained in the book. Do you feel that these two groups of
writers (and/or communities of readers) could benefit from a greater
acquaintance with one another, and if so, how?
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ngdVQ6mzu04/X9aHoHVNhlI/AAAAAAAAHyY/KU9V_FfQd3ko4x4EOMPkQ-_vgMkvsgx7ACLcBGAsYHQ/s263/it%2Bhappened%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bball.jpg>
Description: Image removed by sender.
I suspect the overlap between the two groups of writers is greater than it used
to be. I am active in both, and I often find friends/fellow writers who are
also. I will catch up with a couple of friends at a science fiction convention
and a couple more at the Historical Novel Society Australasia conference. Our
overlap group is not large in number, but it’s definitely growing.
The genres diverge and we talk about that a lot when we meet up. Who writes
what kind of story for what kind of audience, is what it boils down to. One
thing that’s really clear about writers who work in both genres is that we’re
all very aware of genre and how the history we need is different in each. Good
editors are aware of this. I discovered this personally when I wrote a story
<https://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/book/it-happened-at-the-ball/%20> for a
mixed-genre anthology. I know the editor (Sherwood Smith) through speculative
fiction but wrote historical fiction for It Happened at the Ball, because I
wanted to explore what might happen after a couple of waves of plague
(ironically, given this year). Sherwood edited it very much as historical
fiction.
I probably should explore this area more one day. Where research meets and
produces different types of fiction, and how editors handle the genre
differences are fascinating questions.
The area with much less overlap is historians and historical fiction. More
historians who are also fiction writers write historical fantasy, romance or
literary fiction than historical fiction. I used to worry about how historians
would deal with my Medieval time travel novel (
<https://bookshop.org/books/langue-dot-doc-1305/9781611387469> Langue[dot]doc
1305) because of this, but other historians have enjoyed it. Such a relief!
As you read over the responses from the authors, did they take you in any
unexpected directions with your research?
I love research because there are always unexpected directions!
It still strikes me that I went in thinking about historical fiction and
historical fantasy, and that now I feel very strongly that we should not be
neglecting other genres. Historical romance is critical for the way many people
interpret history and why someone falls in love with one period or another, for
example. It’s understudied. Too many people say, “Oh, romance,” and miss its
importance.
The responses also reminded me, over and over again, that writers are each and
every one of them individuals with personal responses to history and with
different publishing experience. I'm very good at interpreting the wider
cultural patterns in narrative: those responses taught me that wider cultural
patterns should never be divorced from real people.
Why a writer chooses a time and place and genre is critical. Who they are and
what they experience plays a part in those choices. Elizabeth Chadwick's memory
of her childhood has become my personal trigger for remembering that writers
matter and that who they are affects what stories they tell.
Many historical fiction fans enjoy reading authors’ notes and learning more
about the research and writing choices undertaken. You wisely point out,
though, that the presence of bibliographies or notes doesn’t always indicate
that the author has interpreted history correctly. What in your view makes for
a good (or helpful, trustworthy, etc.) author’s note in a historical novel?
(Feel free to provide specific examples if you’d like.)
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-61Q4JRDpfME/X9aIrVRqoKI/AAAAAAAAHyk/77jDFNeqHb0QIo_Ackw1piMr5z4wSTK8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s261/languedotdoc.jpg>
Description: Image removed by sender.
I love this question. I don’t have a lot of opinions about the good, the
helpful, the accurate, or even the trustworthy in author’s notes. I do,
however, have opinions. Some writers want me to evaluate their notes. I have
annoyed several of my friends because of this.
I was an historiographer before I became a Medievalist. The way
historiographers interpret history is one of my favourite things, and so I
don't judge bibliographies and notes on how they compare to the equivalent
given by a specialist historian. This is why good and bad, helpful and
unhelpful aren’t the categories that inform my judgement.
For me, author's prologues and epilogues and notes are tools to find out how
the writer thinks about the history they've used in a given novel. I want to
know where their insights come from and what writers want readers to think
about in relation to their stories.
It's not about how accurate the history is, it's about how credible it is. How
much do we want to believe it when we read the novel? A list of books, or an
explanation of research, or a description of how an event is seen by an
historian - all these things help me see a writer's relationship to history.
Some of the authors you interviewed described their strong emotional links to
the periods and/or characters they wrote about, and you spoke about how this
can color their research choices and their writing. Even more, they may not be
aware this is happening. How can the average reader gain awareness of these
potential biases?
Reading those author’s notes is an excellent start. I also read interviews
(like this one!) and blog posts by writers. I look to see where they come from
and how they define that magic word ‘research’. I always, always check for
their emotional response. In History and Fiction Wendy Dunn’s answers to my
questions are a perfect litmus test for emotional responses.
Emotional responses to the past are not bad things at all. What they do is help
us follow a line of decisions a writer makes. If Writer A loves George IV
passionately and will never hear a bad thing said about him, then they will
write a very different story to Writer B who wants to express all their anger
about how he treated his father or Writer C who refuses to write anything set
after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Each of these writers may have identical
characters, but the books will be vastly different. That’s where we see these
responses at work in fiction.
The easiest way to find potential biases is to look for the trails they leave,
in other words. Not all biases are bad, but we can make our own decisions about
them if we understand them.
One of the statements you made in the first chapter, “The role of the fiction
writer in exploring history, in creating new interpretations and in exploring
old ones, cannot be underestimated,” struck me as being particularly true and
relevant. What are some works of fiction you feel have been particularly
influential in this respect, either for you personally or on a larger cultural
level?
I have so many answers to this question.
I generally start with Lord Dunsany, William Morris, JRR Tolkien and the
fantasy Middle Ages or Sir Walter Scott and the historical Middle Ages.
Recently I added Maurice Druon and an entirely different historical Middle Ages
to my answer, because what happens in French language historical fiction is
quite different to what happens in English. I cannot count how many
conversations I’ve had about the effect of Georgette Heyer and the entire
rewriting of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in the minds of
many.
This is something I teach. I ask students to imagine a Richard III without
Thomas More’s “History of King Richard III.” Even people who hate it and who
despise Shakespeare's play and every other offshoot from More’s satire are
affected by it. We can write stories that love Richard and stories that hate
Richard and alternate histories that cut him out of history, but all of them
are influenced by More and his followers.
I also love talking about it, because every culture uses story based on history
to help shape what it is. Sometimes we take from the influential work and we
add to it, but treasure its form and cultural function. Sometimes we do the
opposite. This question is a well that never runs dry.
You are subscribed to email updates from Reading the Past
<https://readingthepast.blogspot.com/> .
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now
<https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=Zv4HCTkyfHGCRgrVK0CGM10SVFE>
.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Other related posts:
- » [bookshare-discuss] Attention. Journey through History Participants - David
