Constructing a World: Shakespeare's England and the New Historical Fiction [Paperback]

Martha Tuck Rozett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0791455521 | ISBN-13: 978-0791455524 | Publication Date: November 2002

Examines recent developments in historical fiction, with particular attention to the way contemporary writers have portrayed Shakespearean England.

Taking its title from Umberto Eco's postscript to The Name of the Rose, the novel that inaugurated the New Historical Fiction in the early 1980s, Constructing the World provides a guide to the genre's defining characteristics. It also serves as a lively account of the way Shakespeare, Marlowe, Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, and their contemporaries have been depicted by such writers as Anthony Burgess, George Garrett, Patricia Finney, Barry Unsworth, and Rosalind Miles. Innovative historical novels written during the past two or three decades have transformed the genre, producing some extraordinary bestsellers as well as less widely read serious fiction. Shakespearean scholar Martha Tuck Rozett engages in an ongoing conversation about the genre of historical fiction, drawing attention to the metacommentary contained in "Afterwords" or "Historical Notes"; the imaginative reconstruction of the diction and mentality of the past; the way Shakespearean phrases, names, and themes are appropriated; and the counterfactual scenarios writers invent as they reinvent the past.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Taking its title from Umberto Eco's postscript to The Name of the Rose, the novel that inaugurated the New Historical Fiction in the early 1980s, Constructing the World provides a guide to the genre's defining characteristics. It also serves as a lively account of the way Shakespeare, Marlowe, Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, and their contemporaries have been depicted by such writers as Anthony Burgess, George Garrett, Patricia Finney, Barry Unsworth, and Rosalind Miles. Innovative historical novels written during the past two or three decades have transformed the genre, producing some extraordinary bestsellers as well as less-widely-read serious fiction. Shakespearean scholar Martha Tuck Rozett engages in an ongoing conversation about the genre of historical fiction, drawing attention to the metacommentary contained in Afterwords or Historical Notes ; the imaginative reconstruction of the diction and mentality of the past; the way Shakespearean phrases, names, and themes are appropriated; and the counterfactual scenarios writers invent as they reinvent the past. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Martha Tuck Rozett is Professor of English at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is the author of Talking Back to Shakespeare and The Doctrine of Election and the Emergence of Elizabethan Tragedy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791455521
• ISBN-13: 978-0791455524
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,995,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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