Title Contemporary historical fiction, exceptionalism and community : after the wreck / Susan Strehle

Published Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource Contents Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth -- Chapter 3 The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan -- Chapter 4 Home and God Help the Child, Toni Morrison -- Chapter 5 LaRose, Louise Erdrich -- Chapter 6 Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders -- Chapter 7 Conclusion Summary This book analyzes a significant group of contemporary historical fictions that represent damaging, even catastrophic times for people and communities; written "after the wreck," they recall instructive pasts. The novels chronicle wars, slavery, racism, child abuse and genocide; they reveal damages that ensue when nations claim an exalted, exceptionalist identity and violate the human rights of their Others. In sympathy with the exiled, writers of these contemporary historical fictions create alternative communities on the state's outer fringes. These fictive communities include where the state excludes; they foreground relations of debt and obligation to the group in place of individualism, competition, and private property. Rather than assimilating members to a single identity with a unified set of views, the communities open multiple possibilities for belonging. Analyzing novels from Britain, Australia, and the U.S., along with additional transnational examples, Susan Strehle explores the political vision animating some contemporary historical fictions. Susan Strehle is Distinguished Service Professor of English at Binghamton University (SUNY), USA. She is the author of Fiction in the Quantum Universe and Transnational Women's Fiction: Unsettling Home and Homeland (Palgrave 2008). With Mary Paniccia Carden, she co-edited Doubled Plots: Romance and History (2003). She has published several articles on contemporary historical fiction Notes Table of Contents Chapter 1. Contemporary Historical Fiction: Exceptionalism and Community After the Wreck Chapter 2. Historical Fiction and Wreckage: Hilary Mantel and Amitav Ghosh Chapter 3. Slavery and the Maroon Community: Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger Chapter 4. War and Communities of Suffering: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthChapter 5. Racism and Communities Beyond Race: Toni Morrison, Home and God Help the Child Chapter 6. Indian Schools and Kinship Communities: Louise Erdrich, LaRose Chapter 7. Disavowed Others and Ghostly Communities: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo (225-260) Chapter 8. Global Fictions of Wreckage and Unsheltered Communities Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed Subject Historical fiction, English -- History and criticism Historical fiction, English -- 21st century -- History and criticism Historical fiction, Australian -- 21st century -- History and criticism Historical fiction, American -- 21st century -- History and criticism Disasters in literature. Communities in literature. Exceptionalism. Exceptionalism Communities in literature Disasters in literature Historical fiction, American Historical fiction, Australian Historical fiction, English Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book ISBN 9783030554668 303055466X

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