ABSTRACT
This chapter charts and structures the field of the new American historical fiction. It provides a brief history of the historical novel, a discussion of the historical romance as national literature, and an analysis of the dichotomies of fact vs. fiction, master narrative vs. micro narrative, and academic vs. pop history. Furthermore, the theoretical framework touches upon relevant aspects of narratology, genre, memory, gender, transatlantic, and neo-Victorian studies as well as postcolonial theory and new historicism. This chapter overall positions the new historical fiction within recent trends and turns in literary, cultural, and historical studies.
