The phenomenon of the historical novel in the context of mass culture

With the advent of the 21st century, the historical novel as a genre became fertile ground for the development of new narrative strategies. This is closely related to a postmodernist poetic which, among others, postulates decentralisation and attention being given to the marginal phenomena replacing metanarratives. In the postmodern historical novel the diffusion of high and low art is evident. The philosophical content, the accuracy in portraying the past, the principle of 'new historicism', requiring the recreation of historical events through a literary text and a system of associations generated by this text, give evidence to the plot being modelled on the classical literary tradition, whereas its form recreates genres that are the favourite of mass culture, such as the detective novel, the thriller, the melodrama and the western. For example, in Peter Ackroyd's novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (also published as The Trial of Elizabeth Cree) (1994) its genre as a detective novel is saturated with cultural references: an image of Victorian England is fashioned through a system of theatrical associations that thrive on those myths still present in the minds of contemporary readers. The canon of a traditional detective novel is annihilated: the role of investigator is delegated to the reader who follows a number of mysteries, losing him- or herself in multiple sub-narratives and versions. The effect of the author's strategy of manipulating the reader is such that finding out whodunit (that is, establishing motive and finding the criminal) becomes secondary, while the very process of reading becomes an engrossing game that draws the reader into its intricacies. A different principle underlies the historical novels of Efim Kurganov, which recreate the spirit of the epoch through their form, being styled on the times in which they are set (anecdote, diary, adventure novel). The documentary nature of the narrative is typical of the postmodernist technique of reflections and latent reminiscences which, in the life of Alexander Stavisky (Krasavchik Sasha [Beautiful Sasha]), reveal an archetype of our own times: the hero-adventurer who counters society's hypocrisy with his own code of honour. In another novel (Shpion Ego Velishestva ili 1812 god [His Excellency's Spy or The Year of 1812]), the conflict between the police and the Secret Service replicates the rivalry of modern-day power structures.