ঐতিহাসিক উপন্যাসের স্বরূপ ও গতিপ্রকৃতি/ The Nature and Trajectory of the Historical Novel

Abstract

With the rise of bourgeois society replacing feudal society in Europe, the novel - a new art-form of literature - emerged. In literature, a novel is a long, narrative-centered fictional prose work. For the convenience of this long narrative form, the study of history has gained importance in the modern novel. It is worth noting that historical writing describes past events based on factual information. A historian does not go beyond written or oral sources. But in that regard, a novelist is much freer. Where information is lacking in the narration of historical events, the novelist takes recourse to ‘counter-history’ or historical imagination. In the tradition of the historical novel, it is noticeable that while creating the narrative, novelists have emphasized probability, necessity, historical imagination, and historical aesthetic appeal, alongside past events and characters. As a result, the particular truth of history is elevated to a universal truth in the novel.

          It is important to note that in writing a historical novel, the novelist must become a philosopher of history. Assuming the role of a philosopher, the novelist makes the inner conflicts of character, political rise and fall, empire-building, life-struggles, joy-sorrow, love-affection, hope-aspiration of people from the past contemporary for the present reader, by combining historical and fictional characters. As a result, a sense of historical aesthetic appeal is evoked in the heart of the empathetic reader.

          From Thomas Leland, Horace Walpole, Clara Reeve, Sir Walter Scott, Honoré de Balzac to novelists of the Postmodern or Postcolonial era like Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, and Mahasweta Devi, all have artistically presented historical events or realities in their novels. The course and nature of the historical novel have changed repeatedly according to time, place, and society. A detailed discussion on this is present in the main essay.