Susan S. Lanser, "Fictions of History: The Rise of the Novel and the Willful Suspension of Disbelief "

Catherine Gallagher has argued that the “rising” novel established a firm concept of fictionality that was widely accepted by the mid-eighteenth century. Why, then, did readers so often insist on the facticity of certain fictions: seeking out a heroine’s grave, for example, or tracking down prototypes for characters? Lanser argues that eighteenth-century fictional forms fomented both ontological uncertainty and a new investment in historicity. Her talk explores the textual and social conditions that led readers to resist the fictionality of self-proclaimed fictions and considers the consequences of that resistance, not least in the emergence of the historical novel.

Learn more about the speaker: Susan S. Lanser, Brandeis University.

Organized by Timothy Campbell, University of Chicago; Lisa A. Freeman, University of Illinois at Chicago; Richard Squibbs, DePaul University; and Helen Thompson, Northwestern University.

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