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Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction

Repairing the Past, Repurposing History

Hsu-Ming Teo editor Paloma Fresno-Calleja editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:13th Jun '24

£135.00

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Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction cover

This book explores how postmillennial Anglophone women writers use romantic narrativisations of history to explore, revise, repurpose and challenge the past in their novels, exposing the extent to which past societies were damaging to women by instead imagining alternative histories. The novelists discussed employ the generic conventions of romance to narrate their understanding of historical and contemporary injustice and to reflect upon women’s achievements and the price they paid for autonomy and a life of public purpose. The volume seeks, firstly, to discuss the work of revision or reparation being performed by romantic historical fiction and, secondly, to analyse how the past is being repurposed for use in the present. It contends that the discourses and genre of romance work to provide a reparative reading of the past, but there are limitations and entrenched problems in such readings.

This innovative collection concentrates on an interesting but neglected form – the historical romance – and explores the ways in which this type of novel has been used by writers to explore complex and difficult issues including genocide, the colonial past, trauma, neo-colonialism and famine. The collection focuses on contested and challenging histories, and conceptualises the long-marginalised ‘romantic historical fiction’ as a crucial and important mode of writing. Often dismissed, the authors show that this category of writing is radical, thoughtful, experimental and profound in its engagement with questions of history, identity, gender and violence.”

Jerome De Groot, University of Manchester, UK

The collection dazzles! Editors Hsu-Ming Teo and Paloma Fresno-Calleja add new depth to the ever-growing field of romance studies by revealing possibilities and pitfalls of the ‘reparative reading of the past’ in women’s fiction. A must-have.

Catherine Roach, University of Alabama, USA

ISBN: 9781032778211

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 449g

218 pages