Recasting Of History–A New-historicist Reading Of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall wins the2009Man Booker Prize because the author choosesthe seldom touched history as its subject, and with her natural and fluent narrative, complexand grand setting, as well as its thickness. Although it’s mainly about the king, his queens andministers, it reveals the usually neglected and understated histories, including the cries andshouts of the common living at the bottom and the sufferings in England. Usually historicalwritings intend to describe the accomplishments, the romance, and the character of HenryVIII as a king, while this novel demonstrates the characters’ psyche, deeds, and experiences.As New Historicists believe that there is no access to the authentic history and any mode ofrecording would be an essential part in the formation of history; in this novel, a great deal ofdetails, psychological and scenery description, use of irony and symbolic narration, etc. addmany omitted fragments to the grand picture of history.The existing foreign and domestic studies on the novel have analyzed it from differentperspectives, including refashioning of Thomas Cromwell, the struggle among politicalpowers, the author’s historical awareness, and the use of present tense, third-person point ofview and carnivalesque methods. But these studies are mainly short book reviews orcomments. Domestic study includes three theses, respectively analyzing subversion andcontainment in the novel, embodiment of narratology, and the author’s negotiation with thehistorical ideology. Based on these studies, this thesis applies New Historicist theory toanalyze how Mantel recasts history with her literary techniques, including her skepticalhistorical sense, her revelation of the complexity of the characters’ personality, and how sheoffers a possibility of a new understanding of history.With an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis altogether consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the novel and a literary review of the study andcomments about it since its publication. It also introduces the New Historicist theory, explainsthe key words and concepts applied in the analysis, and states the purpose of the thesis.Chapter Two uses the concept “textuality of history” to analyze some major characters,Thomas Cromwell, the cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII. Compared with the historicalcharacters’ accomplishments and failures and the concise narration of their characteristics inhistorical materials, this novel stresses on the controversial characteristics of and commentson these characters and their inner conflicts, reveals further of their personalities, andembodies the historical recasting.Chapter Three adopts the idea of “historicity of text”, particularly analyses the religiouspurge during the reformation period and the shaping of Cromwell. Through voicesrepresenting different social energies, including that of Tyndale, Thomas More, the king, andthe Chamber, elaborates how social-historical elements influence the character, words anddeeds of the subjects, how subjects function in this context, and the non-dominant discoursesare eventually contained by the dominant ones.Chapter Four makes an account of the literary techniques used in Mantel’s recasting ofhistory, including her use of metaphor, scenery description mainly imbued with a tragic color,and symbolic narration. Language skill is the edge-tool used to deconstruct texts bypoststructuralists and to deconstruct the mainstream history by New Historicists, and Mantelapplies it to her historical literary creation.Chapter Five is Conclusion, enunciating the significance of analyzing the recasting ofhistory in historical novels from a New Historical perspective. It is helpful for people to havea deeper understanding as well as a reexamination of history.