Between History and Fiction: Aphra Behn’s Love Letters and Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year
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While seeking affinity between Aphra Behn’s and Daniel Defoe’s works may seem irrelevant, Behn’s Love Letters and Defoe’s Journal in fact betray the same generic ambiguities in oscillating between history and fiction. Behn’s Love Letters is based on concrete historical facts and written from the author’s clearly pro-Tory perspective. Behn was one of the practitioners of early modern English historiography informed by the Baconian view that “history should be useful.” However, Love Letters discloses traits of fiction too, within the tradition of romance that idealizes characters and lacks verisimilitude of plot. In its fusion of history and fiction, Defoe’s Journal is not different from Behn’s Love Letters. The Journal has historical accuracy in details such as specific characters and anecdotes. Yet, such factual details serve to expose the fictiveness of the narrator’s self-identification. Furthermore, given its serious investment in the narrator’s spiritual reconciliation, the Journal cannot be read as a pure historical writing. In brief, Behn’s and Defoe’s works reflect the contradictory requirement of the era when history and fiction penetrated reciprocally.
Abstract
While seeking affinity between Aphra Behn’s and Daniel Defoe’s works may seem irrelevant, Behn’s Love Letters and Defoe’s Journal in fact betray the same generic ambiguities in oscillating between history and fiction. Behn’s Love Letters is based on concrete historical facts and written from the author’s clearly pro-Tory perspective. Behn was one of the practitioners of early modern English historiography informed by the Baconian view that “history should be useful.” However, Love Letters discloses traits of fiction too, within the tradition of romance that idealizes characters and lacks verisimilitude of plot. In its fusion of history and fiction, Defoe’s Journal is not different from Behn’s Love Letters. The Journal has historical accuracy in details such as specific characters and anecdotes. Yet, such factual details serve to expose the fictiveness of the narrator’s self-identification. Furthermore, given its serious investment in the narrator’s spiritual reconciliation, the Journal cannot be read as a pure historical writing. In brief, Behn’s and Defoe’s works reflect the contradictory requirement of the era when history and fiction penetrated reciprocally.
참고문헌 (17)
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