The End of the Yellow House
- Submitting institution
-
Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 55841
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Watermark Press
- ISBN
- 978-1838004309
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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https://www.watermarkpress.co.uk/news/now-available-end-of-the-yellow-house
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The End of The Yellow House is a 386 page novel drawing upon extensive historical research into the Russian Civil War and the history of psychiatry in Russia, as well as an exploration of the form of the historical novel, drawing upon ideas of historiographical metafiction.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The End of The Yellow House (2020) is a novel drawing upon five years of historical research into the Russian Civil War and the history of psychiatry in Russia. The novel explores the idea of history as rumour, introducing notions of Magic Realism and Surrealist ideas of the 'dream work' to the ostensibly stable genre of historical fiction. Thus, both the form, and the subject matter (historical definitions of ‘madness’) challenge and question forms of historical memory via an exploration of ideas of historiographical metafiction and the deconstruction of traditional notions of historical truth. I began by researching traditional historical accounts of the period, moving on to find a rich source of material in diaries, memoirs and newspaper accounts. What is most fascinating about this is the uncertain and provisional nature of the material, grounded in speculation, hearsay and, at times, fantastical rumour. I then sought to introduce this uncertainty into the frame of both historical fiction and the ‘closed-house’ murder mystery: two self-consciously stable narrative structures. Needless to say, this also involved an investigation of the two generic forms. The novel’s exploration of the epistemological nature of rumour, dream and conjecture, and the idea of historical phantasy (in the Freudian sense) thus adds to the debate regarding both this crucial period of Russian history and the status of historical fiction more generally. I have discussed the novel on various platforms online and will debate the ideas and my representation of the Russian Civil War at the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow in March. I have also contributed to online debates in relation to questions regarding sanity, madness, and who decides on the definitions of these categories, as well as in forums dedicated to the study of Russian literature.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
