Introduction: Histories and heroines: the female figure in contemporary historical fiction

Abstract

In recent years, the female figure in history has become increasingly visible — previously obscured, she is now palpable, multidimensional, and undeniably present. This figure has flourished in contemporary fiction, the authors of which have worked to establish her as central to historical narratives in a range of both fictional and factual scenarios. This collection explores the female figure in recent historical fiction: the tremendous success of writers such as Philippa Gregory, Kate Mosse and Sarah Waters is testament to the fact that the female figure is now not only desirable but also marketable. The collection interrogates the growth of the contemporary historical fiction genre by examining the implications of these new narratives for contemporary gender politics. Part I, ‘Historical Women: Revisioning Real Lives’, contains chapters which interrogate recent recastings of real women, such as Anne Boleyn, Clara Schumann and Grace Marks, who have previously been misrepresented in historical discourses. Part II, ‘Imagined Histories: Romancing Fictional Heroines’, concentrates on the gender politics inherent in representations of fictional women and their sexuality. Finally, Part III, ‘Rewriting History: Reasserting the Female’, discusses the implications of such representations, reflecting on these repeated rewritings of history in terms of feminism, postmodernism and metafiction, and developing an understanding of the way in which these female figures are received and interpreted within the context of historical fiction.