Literature as a form of historical representation

the case of north american writer Howard Fast

Abstract

The object of the present paper is to make a brief analysis of two literary works of North American writer Howard Fast, in light of the theoretical developments of narrativism, particularly the contributions of Hayden White, and its consequences to the study of literature. In fact, in addition to the recognition of the fictional aspects of historiographical writing, White also points out to the validity of literature as a representation of the past. Seeing Fast’s works through this viewpoint, I will examine the historical romances The Last Frontier and Freedom Road, which portrait, respectively, an episode of the Indian Wars in American West and the age of Reconstruction in the South. I will try to demonstrate that these works had a solid bibliographical and documental research base about the historical periods in question, since Fast – an author committed to the Americanist values of freedom and democracy and, at the same time, with the communist movement and the concepts of Marxist materialism – sought to write a true story that corrected the conceptions distorted by the racism and conservatism present in American society. In this sense, considering literature as a legitimate form of historical representation, we are able to notice the ways in which meanings about the past circulate, spread and change in a society.