Page - 236 - in Über Bücher reden - Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften

© 2021 V&R unipress, Brill Deutschland GmbH ISBN Print: 9783847113232 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737013239 for events and actions. The readers acknowledged that story-telling—and characterization inparticular—createsaspace toreflectonhistory,andexpand historical consciousnessbeyondarchival records. This isnottoassertaconsistencyofresponsesacrossgroups.Membersof the firstMelbournegroupoverwhelminglyassertedthat they“werenot treating[the novel]asif it ishistory,andquestioningit”(FG1).11Somemembersof thesecond groupwereovertlycriticalof thenovel’saccuracy,whichwaslargelytemperedby recognition thatnon-fictionalhistorical accounts arealso fallible: A:Imeanthehistory–theofficialhistoryis… just…madeupanyway,sotome,anovel isoftenasgenuineasahistorybook is going tobe. … D:Historyisalwaysapersonalskew[sic].…So,historyisneverhistoryisneverhistory. (FG2) Subsequentdiscussionspromptedare-imaginingof thepastandanappreciation of historical lives that canattain theirownauthoritybybeing realistic. For the study’s readers, the storymust be believable, plausible, and sincere. Readersactivelyanalyzedtheseaspectsofauthenticity.Evidenceof this includes commentssuchas,“Ididn’treallybuythat[sectionofplot],”and“thatwasthebit I foundreallycontrived,thatpartof thestory”(DG2).Participantsacknowledged thenovel’s fictionality, andvalued it as such.Yetwhile readerswere aware that historians “will leap in” (DG1) to criticize historical novels, they countered “if youwriteanovel, youdon’thavetobeaccurateatall” (DG1).Someparticipants evenquestionedtheauthenticityofaccountsofhistorymorebroadly,which led toatroublingvalorizationoffictitiousaccounts.Readersrecognizedthatanovel aims to tell a story andmay ignore historical details; as one reader comments: “[SarahThornhill] isput inasettingthat isdevoidof specifichistoricaldetail. So that you can’t point to it and saywell thatwouldn’t have happened then, or… there” (DG1). Some readers considered the ‘simple language’of thenovel gave the characters’authenticity, and reflected saying “it is not trying tobe sophisti- catedorsmartoranything,whichishowtheyspokereally—it ishowtheyspokein thosedays”. Inthis instance, thereader’sappreciationof thenovel’sauthenticity reveals assumptions about historical language and speech patterns that others found contrived. Some readers were initially “uncomfortable [with] the style” (FG2) or annoyed by the language devices, as they invoked a kind of cultural cringe. This perceived lapse of historical authenticity (or political correctness) 11 QuotationsfromparticipantsaregivenwithoutanyidentifiersexceptDGandFGtoindicate whetherthecommentsweremadeduringadiscussionorfocusgroup,respectively.Numbers indicatewhether thegroupwas fromMelbourne (1or2)orTasmania (3).Whenmore than one respondent is reported as part of a sequence, letters are used to indicate different speakers. MaggieNolan/RobertClarke /RebekahBrown236 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0