But fictional truth has more to do with the suspension of disbelief than with anything scientific or objective. Whereas really, (as one would think is self-evident) historical fiction is a sub-category of fiction – and so the truth issue only arises in a fictional context.Īll fiction has to seem ‘true’ according to its own rules – this is even so with fantasy fiction, like Gulliver’s Travels or The Lord of the Rings. Therefore historical fiction is bad history. History is always searching for the truth. He hears the word ‘historical’ first, and so he thinks of historical fiction as a sub-category of ‘history’. This is certainly what trips Andrew Graham-Dixon up. The root of the problem, I think, is in the name of genre. So why do these intelligent people get it so wrong when they think about historical fiction? It is ludicrous to say that this is ONLY a defining characteristic of historical fiction – it’s a defining characteristic of ALL fiction. It seeks, at the same time, both ACCURACY and ILLUSION. All art is, to use Graham-Dixon’s words ‘at war with itself’. Not just fiction but sculpture, painting, poetry – all art. Call this a ‘contradiction’ if you like, but it’s an absolute fundamental – perhaps THE absolute fundamental quality of art. Yet no-one would bother to read them if they didn’t believe that they were in some way drawn from life. No-one thinks that these two books are true. Think of Trainspotting or Bridget Jones’ Diary. What Graham-Dixon says of historical novels can just as easily be said of something contemporary. Well – yes – but ALL fiction is ‘a lie somehow grounded in fact’. The very term, implying a fiction somehow grounded in fact – a lie with obscure obligations to the truth – is suggestive of the contradictions of the genre.”Ī ‘fiction somehow grounded in fact’, ‘a lie with obscure obligations to the truth’. “The historical novel has always been a literary form at war with itself.
BRYCE HIRSCHBERG DICK SERIES
It’s the opening to a review of a novel, and the article is written by ANDREW GRAHAM-DIXON – the chap who did that television series about the Renaissance over Christmas last year. Here’s something from the Telegraph last month. But there is one unerring rule: even the most intelligent people can say the most fatuous things about historical fiction. I don’t know whether any of you make a habit of reading book reviews – as I do. It’s not that I don’t know, it’s just that there are so many different answers.īut one answer – probably not THE answer, but a good one nevertheless – is the British press.
“People frequently ask me why I set up the HNS – and actually, it’s a question I’ve found hard to answer. This speech was given by our founder Richard Lee to the Romantic Novelists’ Association at their annual conference in York in 2000. Richard Lee History is but a fable agreed upon: the problem of truth in history and fiction
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