The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels

The voluminous body of work of Peter Ackroyd, one of the most versatile contemporary British writers, comprises chiefly of non-fiction and fiction. The first is dominated by his books on English history, English literature, the history and development of London, and a series of biographies of outst...

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Main Author: Petr Chalupský
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Pardubice 2016-11-01
Series:American and British Studies Annual
Subjects:
Online Access:https://absa.upce.cz/index.php/absa/article/view/2259
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author Petr Chalupský
author_facet Petr Chalupský
author_sort Petr Chalupský
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description The voluminous body of work of Peter Ackroyd, one of the most versatile contemporary British writers, comprises chiefly of non-fiction and fiction. The first is dominated by his books on English history, English literature, the history and development of London, and a series of biographies of outstanding personalities he labels “Cockney Visionaries”, the latter by his novels. Taking some of the recent tendencies in historical fiction as a frame of reference and focusing on Ackroyd’s novels set solely in the past and both in the past and the present, this article examines how the various sides of his professional self – an historian, literary historian, biographer and writer – combine and intersect in his rendering and re-enacting history as a lively material and inheritance that can still be palpable in and illuminating for our present experience.
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spelling doaj.art-21e3b60fdaa848cd86a98a59cd105e372023-05-06T14:00:26ZengUniversity of PardubiceAmerican and British Studies Annual1803-60582788-22332016-11-019The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s NovelsPetr Chalupský0Charles University The voluminous body of work of Peter Ackroyd, one of the most versatile contemporary British writers, comprises chiefly of non-fiction and fiction. The first is dominated by his books on English history, English literature, the history and development of London, and a series of biographies of outstanding personalities he labels “Cockney Visionaries”, the latter by his novels. Taking some of the recent tendencies in historical fiction as a frame of reference and focusing on Ackroyd’s novels set solely in the past and both in the past and the present, this article examines how the various sides of his professional self – an historian, literary historian, biographer and writer – combine and intersect in his rendering and re-enacting history as a lively material and inheritance that can still be palpable in and illuminating for our present experience. https://absa.upce.cz/index.php/absa/article/view/2259Peter Ackroydheterogeneityhistoriographic metafictionpastichepalimpsestalternate history
spellingShingle Petr Chalupský
The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
American and British Studies Annual
Peter Ackroyd
heterogeneity
historiographic metafiction
pastiche
palimpsest
alternate history
title The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
title_full The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
title_fullStr The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
title_full_unstemmed The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
title_short The Living Presence of Invisible Agencies and Unseen Powers – The Dramatised and Reinvented History of Peter Ackroyd’s Novels
title_sort living presence of invisible agencies and unseen powers the dramatised and reinvented history of peter ackroyd s novels
topic Peter Ackroyd
heterogeneity
historiographic metafiction
pastiche
palimpsest
alternate history
url https://absa.upce.cz/index.php/absa/article/view/2259
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