<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Peter Ackroyd’s historiographic metafictional novel <italic>Milton in America</italic> (2006) entails a critical return to history – critical in the sense that it questions the essence of historical knowledge and revisits the past in order to comment on the politics of national identity. Beneath a façade of historicity, the novel explores the continuity of English cultural identity and narrates a fictional story that centres on the conflict of Catholicism and Protestantism in the context of post-Restoration emigration of Puritans from England to New England. The “old faith”, although marginalized, continued to exist in post-Reformation England. The novel ties the significance of Catholicism to a thorough sense of Englishness. Catholic faith is shown as an ancient anchor of English identity. Peter Ackroyd delves into the collective memory of his race in search of a sense of commonality, believing in the continuity of English national identity. Challenging humanist assumptions about historical authenticity, the novel calls into question the idea of religious homogeneity, offering a different narrative as equally valuable.</p>
</abstract>

Peter Ackroyd’s historiographic metafictional novel Milton in America (2006) entails a critical return to history – critical in the sense that it questions the essence of historical knowledge and revisits the past in order to comment on the politics of national identity. Beneath a façade of historicity, the novel explores the continuity of English cultural identity and narrates a fictional story that centres on the conflict of Catholicism and Protestantism in the context of post-Restoration emigration of Puritans from England to New England. The “old faith”, although marginalized, continued to exist in post-Reformation England. The novel ties the significance of Catholicism to a thorough sense of Englishness. Catholic faith is shown as an ancient anchor of English identity. Peter Ackroyd delves into the collective memory of his race in search of a sense of commonality, believing in the continuity of English national identity. Challenging humanist assumptions about historical authenticity, the novel calls into question the idea of religious homogeneity, offering a different narrative as equally valuable.

Remapping Englishness in Peter Ackroyd’s <italic>Milton in America</italic>

Romanian Journal of English Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Remapping Englishness in Peter Ackroyd’s 

Peter Ackroyd’s historiographic metafictional novel Milton in America (2006) entails a critical return to history – critical in the sense that it questions the...

Remapping Englishness in Peter Ackroyd’s Milton in America

Publié en ligne: 16 déc. 2022

Pages: 58 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rjes-2022-0008

Mots clés
Englishness, historiographic metafiction, Peter Ackroyd, nationhood

© 2022 Masoud Farahmandfar, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Remapping Englishness in Peter Ackroyd’s Milton in America

Publié en ligne: 16 déc. 2022

Pages: 58 - 69

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rjes-2022-0008

Mots clésEnglishness, historiographic metafiction, Peter Ackroyd, nationhood

© 2022 Masoud Farahmandfar, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
Englishness, historiographic metafiction, Peter Ackroyd, nationhood