Conclusion: the Historical Novel, from Postcolonial Reconciliation to Environmental Crisis

Abstract

The preceding chapters constitute the most systematic analysis of the contemporary postcolonial historical novel yet produced. In this detailed exploration of the genre I have focused simultaneously on the aesthetics of combining invented and documented elements to represent the past, and on how the resulting narratives engage with public debate in contexts where interpretations of history are subject to dispute. By examining texts written by Nigerian, Australian, and New Zealand authors, I have revealed that notwithstanding its diversity of theme, style, and subject matter, the postcolonial historical novel is linked by the shared poetics of allegorical realism. As Chapter 2 explains, this term describes how historical novels offer interpretations of a putatively actual past through narratives composed of elements that signify across epistemological and ontological registers. Imaginary characters, objects, events, or settings represent documented phenomena via their oscillation between typical and singular significations. This process intertwines affective and abstract relations to the past, and generates temporal ambivalence. I have argued that my model of allegorical realism contributes to both postcolonial and historical novel scholarship by illuminating features of the genre elided by critical tendencies in both.KeywordsCritical TendencyHistorical UnderstandingPreceding ChapterEvaluative PracticeMagic RealistThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.