Degree Thesis Bachelor´s program in Linguistics, 180 credits Harlot or Heroine? The portrayal of Anne Boleyn in three contemporary historical novels written by women English, 15 credits Anna Sylwan HALMSTAD UNIVERSITY Halmstad University Department of Humanities English Section Harlot or Heroine? The portrayal of Anne Boleyn in three contemporary historical novels written by women A comparative study of The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy, and Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn. Anna Sylwan English (61-90) Supervisor: Kristina Hildebrand EN5001 Spring Term 2020 Examiner: Danielle Cudmore 1 Table of Contents Content 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 3 2. Aim and approach ............................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Women´s historical fiction ................................................................................................... 6 2.2.4 Literature review ............................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Theoretical background ...................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 The Male Gaze ................................................................................................................ 13 2.2.2 Slut-shaming .................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Material and previous research ....................................................................................... 15 3. Comparative Analysis .......................................................................................................... 15 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 24 2 1. Introduction Writing by and for women has come to dominate the historical fiction genre in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Since its birth in the early nineteenth century, historical fiction has been in a constant state of change. It has been shaped by culture and has responded to the way in which history has been commonly conceptualized. The general impression of historical fiction is that it is “a nostalgic, reactionary genre” (Wallace 4) and attracts readers with the idea that they will learn about the past recreated in the novel. However, historical novels reveal as much, if not more, of the social and political structures at work at the time in which they were created. Hilary Mantel, author of the award-winning historical novel Wolf Hall, claims that “all historical fiction is really contemporary fiction; you write out of your own time” (qtd. in Bordo 230). During the last decades, a remarkable intensity of interest in the Tudor period has been noted. Innumerable books concerning the Tudor kings and queens, both fiction and non- fiction, have been published during this time. Most common are the publications on Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I, but a considerable number of books have also been devoted to his wives, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, in particular. This increased interest becomes evident when a search on Amazon.com reveals that there are hundreds of historical novels written about her, especially since the 2001 publication of the tremendously popular novel The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. The popularity of these Tudor novels has also led to a re-publication of earlier, out-of-print novels by women writers. Their fascination with the period resulted in works of fiction long before there was a The Other Boleyn Girl- hype. One of these works was Jean Plaidy´s The Lady in the Tower, which was first published in 1986 and republished in in the late 1990s. 3 Different historical periods and agendas have formed Anne Boleyn´s image in various ways. In The Creation of Anne Boleyn: In Search of the Tudor´s Most Notorious Queen, Susan Bordo explains the many depictions of her throughout the years, from harlot to heroine: For supporters of Katherine of Aragon, she was . a coldhearted murderess. For Catholic propagandists . she was a six-fingered, jaundiced-looking erotomaniac who slept with butlers, chaplains, and half of the French court. For Elizabethan admirers, she was the unsung heroine of the Protestant Reformation. For the Romantics . she was the hapless victim of a king´s tyranny . In postwar movies and on television, Anne has been animated by the rebellious spirit of the sixties . the “mean girl” and “power feminist” celebration of female aggression and competitiveness of the nineties . and the third- wave feminism of a new generation of Anne worshippers [who in Anne see] a woman too smart, sexy, and strong for her own time, unfairly vilified for her defiance of sixteenth- century norms of wifely obedience and silence. (xiii) The wily, deformed image of Anne is mainly found in works of contemporary Catholics who supported Katherine of Aragon, by which most of the damaging statements lie in letters written by Eustace Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador. His official reports to the emperor about events at the English court are some of the few remaining first-hand documentations which still exist. However, his letters are immensely biased, as he could not be expected to communicate an objective opinion on the situation concerning Henry´s divorce from Katherine, and Anne´s involvement in the matter (Bordo 6-7). Bordo even claims that Chapuys “was the founding father of anti-Anne propaganda” (12) and that she finds it “difficult to imagine someone who would be less disposed of a dissolution of Henry´s marriage to Katherine and more opposed to the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn” (6). The focus of this essay is to research how Anne Boleyn has been portrayed in three novels by Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy, and Suzannah Dunn, and explore the ways in which feminist discourses have made an impact on these three works. It will further examine how Anne 4 Boleyn is represented in the view of feminist concepts such as the male gaze and slut shaming. Is the character of Anne Boleyn portrayed in these novels, shaped by the feminist culture of their day, or have they remained in the ingrained historic perception of Anne as a harlot and a witch? The novels engage and criticize patriarchal power to various degrees by engaging with this original negative viewpoint of Anne. This has helped shape our view of Anne, and all authors writing about her engage with this in some way. The authors in this text depart from this image to varying degrees, reimagining Anne in ways that both challenge and conform to these particular views. 2. Aim and approach This essay will analyse three contemporary historical novels about Anne Boleyn, written by three female authors who have proven to be commercially successful or prolific producers of women’s historical fiction: The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy (1986), The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (2001), and Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn (2005). These three have novels have female focalisers; therefore, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is not included, although it is a well-known and successful historical novel about Anne Boleyn. The Other Boleyn Girl, which is arguably the most popular of these novels and which has been made into a feature film, is placed in dialogue to the two other novels, which were published before and after Gregory´s novel and explore differences and similarities in the authors´ portrayals of Anne Boleyn, with a particular focus on feminist concepts such as slut shaming and the male gaze. Thus, the aim is to achieve an understanding of how certain powers of patriarchy have, despite the authors´ feminist consciousness, made an impact on their works when portraying Anne Boleyn. 5 2.1 Women´s historical fiction Women´s historical fiction is one of the most influential genres of women’s literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through the years, reviewers have observed that increased interest in historical novels generally coincides with major national and world events, such as the end of World War II, but also that such novels provide a welcome escape from, for example, “problems of world peace, racial injustice, and civil disobedience” (Wallace 127). What constitutes a historical novel and what forms it includes have long been discussed. Traditionally, critical studies of the historical novel start with Sir Walter Scott´s Waverley; or ´tis sixty years since (1814). The general perception of history and the ideal of the classical historical novel developed “from Scott´s works have both worked to exclude women´s texts from the accepted canon” (Wallace 12). In The Woman´s Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900-2000, Diana Wallace discusses studies that have been done on the subject. One of the studies, written by Avrom Fleishman in 1971, worked with three primary conditions when defining the historical novel. The novel should be set in the past “beyond an arbitrary number of years, say 40-60 (two generations)” (qtd. in Wallace 12); the plot should include historical events, especially those in public fields such as war, economic change, or politics, mixed with how the characters´ fates are affected by these historical events; and it should include “at least one “real” personage” (qtd. in Wallace 12). These conditions