The Nineteenth Century Revis(it)ed

Ina Bergmann is associate professor of American studies at the University of Würzburg, Germany. She is the author of one monograph, And Then the Child Becomes a Woman: Weibliche Initiation in der amerikanischen Kurzgeschichte 1865-1970 (2003); the (co)editor of nine volumes of essays and special sections of journals, among them Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings in American, Canadian, and British Writing (2015), Cultures of Solitude: Loneliness – Limitation – Liberation (2017), and Intermediality, Life Writing, and American Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2018); and a frequent contributor to peer-reviewed journals and international book projects. She has held fellowhips with the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford, the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin, and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, USA.

1. History, Fiction, and the USA

The New American Historical Fiction

A Brief History of the Historical Novel

Nineteenth-Century Historical Romance as National Literature

The Fact/Fiction Dichotomy

Master Narrative vs. Micro Narrative

Academic History vs. Pop History

The Illusion of Veracity

Nostalgia, Escapism, or Historical Lesson?

The Appeal of the Nineteenth Century

Historical Fiction, Memory, and Genre

The Neoconservative, the Liberal, the Identitarian, and the Postmodern

Is All New Historical Fiction Historiographic Metafiction?

How Neo-Victorian is It?

Revis(it)ing the Past

2. Historical Crime Fiction

Theoretical Conceptions

Caleb Carr's The Alienist (1994)

Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club (2003)

Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City (2003)

3. Multi-time-level Historical Fiction

Theoretical Groundwork

Valerie Martin's The Great Divorce (1994)

Michael Cunningham's Specimen Days (2005)

David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife (2008)

4. Historical Biofiction

Theoretical Foundations

Lauren Belfer's City of Light (1999)

Diane Glancy's Stone Heart (2003)

John May's Poe & Fanny (2004)

5. Reanimated Classics

Theoretical Framework

Christopher Bigsby's Hester (1994)

Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone (2001)

Geraldine Brooks's March (2005)

6. Revis(it)ing History and Fiction

Works Cited

Index