Narrating the Unrecorded: Hidden Histories of Tudor England in Contemporary Historical Fiction

Abstract

Historical fiction is an alternative to the study of the past because it retrieves voices and experiences that are often missing from official history. This paper applies the theoretical framework of New Historicism to investigate the hidden histories of Tudor England in the works of Hilary Mantel and C. J. Sansom. Drawing on Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy and Sansom’s Shardlake series, the study examines how the authors reconstitute political, religious and social realities without changing historical facts. Their narratives shed light on disadvantaged views, uncover hidden power structures and reimagine archival silences through creative storytelling. The study contends that historical fiction, through the juxtaposition of literary works and historical discourse, provides a supplement to traditional history by uncovering obscured aspects of the Tudor period. The paper claims that the works of Mantel and Sansom represent the purpose of New Historicism to re-place the past and to expand the knowledge of Tudor England beyond the constrictions of traditional historiography.