"Translating" History And The Voice Of The Subaltern

Hilary Mantel's historical novel Wolf Hall gained the 2009 Man Booker Prize,owing to which she has attracted extensive attention.The novel provides a different scene of the rise and fall of the Tudor Dynasty from Thomas Cromwell's perspective,and shows other aspects of the historical figures.Since it won the Booker prize,there have been many reviews of the novel and interviews with the writer.It has also been studied from different perspectives.Based on obtainable reference materials at home and abroad,most researches focus on her award-winning works Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.These studies mainly concentrate on how the novels reshape characters and overturn history.There have also been explorations of the themes,writing styles,and unnatural factors in the novels,and comparisons between them and Mo Yan's works.Researches on the writer generally center around her life experiences and ideology.The present author,in her reading of Wolf Hall,which is set against grand historical events,notices that the writer has incorporated historical texts other than the official history such as myths and legends,and represented that historical period from an unofficial perspective.New historicists believe in the textuality of history and do not think there is objective history.The official history is only one version,whereas those overlooked people and things are also part of history.The descriptions of the things and choice of characters in Wolf Hall embody Mantel's new historicist view.This thesis will first discuss Mantel's view of history and fiction writing.Then,from the perspective of new historicism,it will explore the way of "translating" history in Wolf Hall and its function of providing a channel for the voice of the subaltern.The present author argues that "translating" history is the core of Mantel's view of historical fiction writing,and the significance of "translating" history lies in its enabling the subaltern to utter their voice."Translate" and "subaltern" are two key terms used in the thesis."Translate" in the thesis is expanded to mean not only "transmit",but also"interpret","retell" and "complement",and "translating history" means to provide a new version of history."Subaltern" in the thesis refers to the overlooked,the represented and/or the marginalized.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is Introduction,which first gives a brief introduction about Mantel and Wolf Hall,and a general survey of previous studies on the writer and the work.Then it explains the focus and structure of the thesis.Chapter Two is about Mantel's view of history,historical fiction and the mission of a writer.On one hand,Mantel thinks that the past is important,but on the other hand she doubts the reliability of historical texts.Historical fiction in her eyes also tells history,and the mission of a writer is to rewrite history,acting as a "walking anachronism".Chapter Three explains Mantel's way of rewriting history,that is,"translating"history from the overlooked people and things.The chapter focuses on the objects in daily life,legends and even rumors,and the marginalized people,and shows how Mantel provides a history beneath the official history and a different picture of the Tudor Dynasty.Chapter Four explores the significance of "translating" history.It argues that"translating" history provides a channel for the voice of the subaltern.The subaltern utter their yearnings for concern and attention,call for the right to speak for themselves and make the appeal for recognition.Chapter Five summarizes the whole thesis and draws the conclusion that Hilary Mantel "translates" history in her historical fiction so that the voice of the subaltern can be heard.