AustLit

'This book analyzes contemporary historical fiction about damaging, even catastrophic times for people and communities. The novels chronicle civil wars, slavery, and genocide; they trace the logic of histories “after the wreck” when nations assume an exalted, exceptionalist identity and violate the human rights of their Others, rendering community impossible. A first section of the introduction draws on the work of New Americanist scholars to develop the implications of exceptionalism, especially its exclusion of Others from the nation-state’s community. A second section develops the meanings of community, drawing on thinkers who develop ethical and inclusive models. Replacing a vision of the exceptional state as an ahistorical polity of the privileged, contemporary historical fictions imagine diverse communities of obligation, kinship, duty, and service.' (Publication summary)