Critical Analysis of Emotions That Build Historical Fiction Literature

Indeed, historical fiction has long been battled by critics between being purely fictitious and a transformational stimulation of the past, ever since Sir Walter Scott's 'Waverley' in 1814 - the first recorded novel on this genre. Although it can entail a lack of 'critical analysis', to an extent, as well as propagate the, seemingly, ulterior motives of authors to align the audience with their, often, political andor religious agendas through, for example, linguistic perspectives of the same historical event- such as the discrepancy in the relations of Mahmud of Ghazni's raid on the Somnath temple in 1026CE by Naseem Hijazi and Chatursen Shastri - ultimately, historical fiction constitutes of much more than 'cheap sentimentalism'. Rather, historical fiction personalises the vast domain of history for the present audience to feel a greater emotional resonance with characters of the past, who have shaped the World we reside in today, with the power to create lasting connections with the past through experience and memory in ways statistics obscure; therefore, these deeper meanings are undermined by Harlan's judgement that these are merely shallow and overly emotional. Through delving deep into the psychology of characters, writers of historical fiction do not provide a futile 'soppy-eyed spectacle', rather it serves a superior purpose where the audience can not only witness but re-live the anthropocentric aspect of history as individual stories. Harlan completely ignores the impact of critical historical perspectives and how experience, memory and emotions enrich the common understanding of history and can outwardly create incongruities, although this forms a part of the 'dynamics of remembrance', whereby, as proposed by Anne Rigney, established memories, embedded in history are developed and replaced over time. Through analysing the various approaches to the comprehension as well as purpose of historical fiction alongside the views of critics, it shall be concluded that Harlan's assumptions are mostly incorrect.

Firstly, historical fiction can be and has been critically analysed to test its soundness, unlike Harlan's comment on how it is 'short on critical analysis', since it comprises of history, real events that occurred in the past, relating to real people and real places, and of fiction, which brings in the literary aspect of imagination; therefore, various critics have devised their own systems to ensure that historical fiction is far from 'long misty nostalgia'. For example, the Marxist Hungarian critic George Lukacs outlines his criteria for approaching historical fiction, which serves as an overall reflection and summary of the predominant critical attitudes to historical fiction, though he specifically focuses on historical novels. To begin with, he remarks at how historical fiction can be guaranteed 'fidelity', meaning complete historical accuracy. This is when the writer is able to 'produce an extensively complete totality' by including as many historical details as possible, which can be done through a recreation of the physical conditions of the past to 'plastically' bring the historical period before an audience to enable us to 're-experience them as a phase of mankind's development' so the particular 'psychology and ethics' of that period are not dismissed as mere ephemera for the enhancement of the plot, again strengthening the connection we feel with characters of the past through the stimulation of mutual empathy. Irrespective of how this critical analysis was originally intended for historical novels, in my opinion, this can be applied to all the groups of media employed to portray historical fiction. For instance, the Shakespearean drama 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'can be applied. Despite its dramatic form, this does not create a huge difference in application but eases the process of 'plastically' reproducing eleventh century Scotland due to the physical performance aspect, depending on the quality of acting. Shakespeare uses many historical details like the 'Thane of Cawdor' and 'Glamis' to successfully reconstruct this period, deeply probing into his psychology by revealing his doubts and questions in the soliloquy, allowing the audience to feel they themselves have become a Thane and share Macbeth's desire for power and uncertainty. This is reinforced by the critic Anais Nin's rather comprehensive statement in which she said, 'we write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect', highlighting the importance of the sensory quality, which historical fictions must utilise to be able to recreate the psychology of the characters in order to feel the impacts of their mistakes and victories (like Macbeth's), which brought us here today. However, through the non-historical addition of witches and their prophecies, critics like Harlan would argue it is an unnecessary detail. On the other hand, it may be unrealistic and not historic but it is a realistic reflection of the supernatural beliefs of the Middle Ages all the way to Shakespeare's Jacobean audience. This element materially allows us to engage with the character's psychology. As a result, through a combination of general historical and literary approaches to historical fiction, it firmly opposes Harlan's assumption of a 'lack of critical analysis', as shown, on how to understand these complex mixtures of history and psychological characterisations.

Secondly, the use of memory can inform our approach to historical fiction, which enhances historical fiction, in general, due to its free and lively essence in conveying the history in a personalised manner to further allow the audience to step into the past, instead of creating 'cheap sentimentalism'. According to Pierre Nora, history seeks to 'suppress' and 'destroy' memory by emptying historical materials and monuments of their value through their preservations in 'sites of memories' like museums and cemeteries. Therefore, historical fiction marks the reconciliation between memory and history as it is 'antithetical to spontaneous memory'. Evidently, memory is highly abstract and the 'quest' involved in historical fiction to dig for a memory of the past is the 'search for one's history', which suggests the merging of these two components, thus the uncovering of one is the uncovering of the other. The beauty of memory is how it is a positive uniting force to 'bond' us, mortal creatures, to the 'eternal present' so this highly significant aspect cannot be reduced to the adjective 'cheap', as Harlan has done. In fact, the closeness of these two things and their merging together means a union of their respective attributes so history naturally attaches itself to critical analysis whereas memory is reminiscent of daily life and the process and remembering and forgetting; these humanistic norms resonate across the face of the Earth as these basic intrinsic matters are equal for all our species and reminds us of how historical characters were once like us. For example, in the primary text 'Separated from the Flock' by Krishna Sobti , published in Hindi, describing the story of Pasho, who must flee her family home during the Second Anglo-Sikh War with East India Company in the Punjab region, where she was born, it includes historical details like Delhi and other places like the 'Rehabilitation Ministry' and numerous camps as part of this war. Essentially, it is viewing the past through Sobti's fond memories of walking through the market, perhaps reflecting her search for her history and her memories, tied down to the 'Shalami Market', her site of memory. Her frequent questioning, worries and further display of emotions not only allow us to feel her psychology but we can see how her memory has been torn yet remains living, attached to the 'Navatri festival'. It allows her to escape from the pain of war and relish in the remembrance of the peace in diversity with 'Hindu women, Muslim women' laughing and living together. Even though the imagined character Pasho is not real thus not historical, Sobti's emotional response to seeing refugees and even Pasho resonate with readers on a deeper and more intimate level as it brings the acknowledgement of universal truths of pain and uncertainty, inciting thoughtful reflections on how to inspire change through empathy, as opposed to inciting a 'soppy-eyed spectacle', as history is a form of a reality and reality is built through these universal truths. Another approach through memory, suggested by Rigney , is to recognise how the literature of historical fiction recreates itself and that memory is in power and cannot be 'tied-down to sites of memory', rather it embeds itself into a 'cultural remembrance', forming culture and a communal memory, as presented by Sobti whereby all the characters like Pasho, the women, young girls and refugees all share a collective emotional experience of war and that memory is subject to how and whether they exchange these stories as 'objects of recollections' and a 'catalyst', to not only preserve history that can eternally survive through writing and oral transmission, but also open up vital topics like mutual peace between India and Britain for the greater good. As history is an 'incomplete reconstruction' of the past, through memory, writers achieve the task of uniting the present with the past for a better future.

Arguably, experience is one of the main components of historical fiction for history is purely a collection of a myriad of experiences. Each piece of historical fiction singles out specific experiences from the vast time frame of history; however, what differentiates the experiences in historical fiction from experiences in usual fiction is the aspect of one serving as evidence, based off memory, and the other as figments from the writer's imagination. Due to the complexity of human emotions and human lives and how they are intricately intertwined, experience in historical fiction is greater than an overly sentimental 'misty nostalgia' nor is it a distortion based off the author's preconceptions. Indeed, it is a contribution to history and adds to existing source materials, 'calling old narratives into question when new evidence is discovered', as described by Joan Scott , accentuating the idea that memory and history are in constant evolution. Through utilising experience as evidence, historical fiction can almost scientifically replace out of date history with newly found evidence as it is subjective and personal, leading to different interpretations of the same event arising as the experience is more 'truer to the subject' experiencing an event than for us watching it or reading it. Yet, by building history on people's experiences of differences in identity, there would be no questioning of how these 'evidence for facts of differences' arose in the first place, annihilating the possibility of discrimination and prejudice. Similarly, Oksala claims how the individuality of experience is simultaneously paired with communal experiences, which can be effective when seeking political action by being able to 'disidentify from the singularity' of one's position. These critics support my point in which experiences can mostly be used as evidence but a mature understanding of differences within people is required to sort through them, like in 'The Abduction of Sita', where the different experiences encapsulate those of Sita, her father, Irfan and people fleeing the partition. Out of these, it is evident Sita is the most vulnerable due to her multiple identities as not only a female but a Hindu woman from Sindh, not resultant in multiple experiences but, of course, adds multiple dimensions to her experience. This is explored through her confusion and frustration at the Partition and her fear when she feels she is in a 'city of ghosts' and has no 'feeling of affinity', which evokes pathos and a sense of loss from the reader's behalf as they share the experience of Sita and the despairing refugees. At face value, I agree this may be perceived as long-winded and overly emotional but, upon further analysis, it is clear that this experience, especially of a woman, is vital in tracking the progress of how society has transformed from patriarchal to a greater tolerance and acceptance of all genders, minorities and faiths. This truly establishes the power of experiences conveyed through historical fiction.

The core basis of memory and experience is emotion and its inclusion within historical fiction is critical for its authenticity so the audience can feel the true essence of a time period as well as its complications and impacts. For this reason, writers appeal to different emotional communities based on existing communities, which can be explained by the critic Pernau's outline of ways communities feel emotion, such as the 'I-mode', in this instance, where readers of a specific historical fiction feel the same way but are not in each other's presence or the 'We-mode', pertaining to Mahmud's army as described in Hijazi's book , whereby the soldiers all feel victory at the same time in the same place after they conquered the Somnath temple. This example of the texts written about the Muslim leader Mahmud of Ghazni alludes to the ways in which positive and negative emotions are used to mobilise particular communities (based on religion, language and nationality). Both Hijazi and Shastri have designed their prose with differing linguistic form to have an emotional reaction in the reader. Hijazi writes in Urdu thus likely for a Muslim Pakistani audience whereas Shastri writes in Hindi for a Hindi Indian audience, around six years after the Partition, during discussions to rebuild the Somnath Temple, a focal point for dispute between Muslims and Hindus. This indicates the high level of tension and resentment that would have existed for those readers, exhibited through Shastri and Hijazi's antipodean descriptions- especially of Mahmud, who attacked the Hindu temple in 1026CE. In the Somnath text, the calm Priest feels isolated and yet is glorified for his courage and ultimate sacrifice of life to his idol, contrasted with the way Mahmud is presented as oppressive and arrogant, who struck a 'mighty blow' against Ganga's 'pure, cleansed head'. This spurs the emotional reaction towards Ganga to be one of sadness, pity and respect whereas we are meant to perceive Mahmud as egoistical with the focus on the riches of the temple to highlight his greed. Contrastingly, in 'The Lost Battle', there is much more chaos, perhaps more realistic hence increasing its voracity, with 'desperate' Hindu priests selling their gods, portraying them as weak and cowardly, unlike the determined Ganga. Furthermore, Mahmud is described as a 'God-fearing' hero freeing India from tyranny, focused on executing justice in the World, whom all soldiers admire and pray behind. Here, the emotional reaction shines Mahmud in a positive light as well as negating the butchering soldiers presented by Shastri for valiant. Although historically Mahmud was one person, depending on your own identity, as discussed above, you either feel a connection with him or feel outraged by his violence. Such a powerful tool to mould history into the audience's mind cannot be rejected as a 'soppy-eyed spectacle'.

In truth, the hidden emotions that build historical fiction are differently interpreted by people, based on different backgrounds and cultures, as discussed by Rosenwein in 'The History of Emotions' interview. The 'cognitive theory of emotions' highlights how emotions are a result of shared experiences with those who share our moral principles and beliefs, explaining how different events in history have different meanings attached but, despite this, historical fiction is able to create 'emotional communities' by appealing to those who assess the valuable or harm similarly. Although some of the historical fiction Harlan may have been exposed to may include 'misty nostalgia' outwardly, on a deeper level, their purpose is to create an influential piece of historical fiction. In fact, these extra details, be it emotional or not, which Harlan considers as a 'sticky-sweet compound', enable the complex interpretations of history present in non-fiction historical books easier to grasp thus can be presented to a greater audience, having a greater global impact, evident in the example whereby the musical Hamilton reached a larger audience than the factual biography by Ron Chernow.