Page - 236 - in Über Bücher reden - Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften
Image of the Page - 236 -
Text of the Page - 236 -
© 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
Über Bücher reden
Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften
- Title
- Über Bücher reden
- Subtitle
- Literaturrezeption in Lesegemeinschaften
- Author
- Doris Moser
- Editor
- Claudia Dürr
- Publisher
- V&R unipress
- Date
- 2021
- Language
- German
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-7370-1323-9
- Size
- 15.5 x 23.2 cm
- Pages
- 262
- Category
- Lehrbücher