History Meets Fiction

by Beverley Southgate

Is history factual, or just another form of fiction? Are there distinct boundaries between the two, or just extensive borderlands? How do novelists represent historians and history? The relationship between history and fiction has always been contentious and sometimes turbulent, not least because the two have traditionally been seen as mutually exclusive opposites. However, new hybrid forms of writing – from historical fiction to docudramas to fictionalised biographies – have led to the blurring of boundaries, and given rise to the claim that history itself is just another form of fiction. In his thought-provoking new book, Beverley Southgate untangles this knotty relationship, setting his discussion in a broad historical and philosophical context. Throughout, Southgate invokes a variety of writers to illuminate his arguments, from Dickens and Proust, through Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier, to such contemporary novelists as Tim O’Brien, Penelope Lively, and Graham Swift. Anyone interested in the many meeting points between history and fiction will find this an engaging, accessible and stimulating read.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2009

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting. Southgate argues for the blurring of boundaries between fiction and history because both use narrative techniques involving selection and gap-filling. Interpretations are only ever provisional because emphasising different (or new) evidence could change them etc. Basically same postmodernist type argument as Hayden White. Has a bit on using literature as historical evidence then - most interestingly - most of the chapters look at case studies of "fiction" discussing topics in historical theory, such as memory, identity, ethics. It is the sort of book that has lots of words in italics...

[Bea · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the author makes some interesting points, the book is very repetitive. It could probably have been condensed to half its length.