The Ancient World in Alternative History and Counterfactual Fictions (Bloomsbury Studies in Classical Reception)

Focusing in turn on history, powerful individuals, under-represented voices and the arts, the essays in this collection cover a wide variety of modern and contemporary narrative fiction from Jo Walton and L. Sprague De Camp to T. S. Chaudhry and Catherynne M. Valente. Chapters look into the question of chance versus determinism in the unfolding of historical events, the role individuals play in shaping a society or occasion, and the way art and literature symbolise important messages in counterfactual histories. They also show how uchronic narratives can take advantage of modern literary techniques to reveal new and relevant aspects of the past, giving voices to marginalised minorities and suppressed individuals of the ancient world. Counterfactual fiction and uchronic narratives have been largely up until now the domain of literary critics. However, these modes of literature are here analysed by scholars of Ancient History, Egyptology and Classics, shedding important new light on how cultures of the ancient world have been (and still are) perceived, and to what extent our conceptions of the past are used to explore alternate presents and futures. Alternate history entices the imagination of the public by suggesting hypothetical scenarios that never occurred, underlining a latent tension between reality and imagination, and between determinism and contingency. This interest has resulted in a growing number of publications that gauge the impact of what-if narratives, and this one is the first to give scholars of the ancient world centre-stage. Up until now the domain of literary critics, counterfactual fiction and uchronic narratives are here analysed by ancient historians and classicists, shedding important new light on how cultures of the ancient world are perceived now and to what extent our experience and perception of the past is used to explore alternate presents and futures. Alternate history entices the imagination of the public by suggesting hypothetical scenarios that never occurred, characterised by one scholar as a latent tension between artificiality and authenticity. This interest has resulted in a growing number of publications that gauge the impact of what-if narratives, and this one is the first to give ancient historians the stage. Focusing in turn on history, politics, the arts and under-represented voices, the essays in this collection cover a wide variety of modern and contemporary fiction from Pauline Hopkins and L. Sprague De Camp to T. S. Chaudhry and Catherynne M. Valente. Chapters look into the question of chance vs determinism in the unfolding of historical events; the role individuals play in shaping a society or occasion; and the way art and literature symbolise important messages in counterfactual histories. They also show how uchronic narratives can take advantage of modern literary techniques to reveal new and relevant aspects of the past, including ensuring that marginalised and suppressed individuals in the ancient world, from women to slaves to minorities, can now take centre stage. "...Alexander of Macedon poised at the Oxus, ready to invade India in his drive for world dominion and his search for earth-encircling Ocean. Though he was never defeated in battle, the endeavor ended in disaster, and the physical debility brought on by the trans-Oxus campaign may well have caused his death a few years later. What might have happened had Alexander, at the height of imperial splendor, instead turned West, to face the power that was Rome?"--Page 4 of cover What might have happened had Alexander not marched into India, but turned back west? This is the question posed in Ms. Scott's alternate history. Yet another revolt in Greece (even more serious than the historical revolt of King Agis of Sparta) forces Alexander to turn around and march back home. Having been thwarted then in his bid for India, he turns his interest west instead, to Rome and Carthage.