Romances of the Archive in Contemporary British Fiction by Suzanne Keen (review)

with another,that of xenophobic greyness,this book is well researchedand presents the reader with an insight into the colonizer colonized. UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING ANGELA SMITH Romancesof the Archivein Contemporary British Fiction. By SUZANNE KEEN. Toronto, Buffalo,NY, and London:Universityof Toronto Press.200I. x + 288 pp. $60; ?40. ISBN: 0-8020-3589-2. Suzanne Keen sets out her stall in an excellent introduction in which she says, among many other things, 'I make every effort to write about fiction in terms that a novel-readercan understandwithout resortingto an encyclopedia of literary terms' (p. 6) and 'this book comes out of decades of pleasure reading' (p. 9), both of which I found refreshingand reassuring;as I went on, I was not to be disappointed - she writesin an approachablestyle,with a minimum ofjargon and very few errors, except for the consistent mis-spellingof 'siege'. From time to time she comes up with marvellousmetaphors, such as the researcher'discoveringoccluded truths and clarifyingviews of clouded pasts' (p. 181).As I read the introduction I recognized many of the books cited, and had read many of them, but had never thought of lumping them together as 'a pervasive form of contemporary British fiction, widely dispersedamong a whole range of sub-genresof the novel' (p. 230). This perception makes for a fascinatingthesis, and a good read. Her method is conventional but effective, devoting chaptersto each of the identified sub-genres and dealing in each with several case studies, never more than four, but enriching plot synopses with her analysis, criticism, and comment, and citing numerous other novels and studies which have touched on her subject about a fifth of the book is given over to the notes, bibliography,and index. Probably the least effective chapter is that dealing with 'Wellsprings',that obligatory look back to influences from Spenser, through Gothic to HenryJames and H. P. Lovecraft,and perhaps not enough about TheJame of theRose.But in the previous chapter she deals in detail with A. S. Byatt's Possession, which is clearly the star of the genre. 'Much of Possession's energy comes from the recovery and celebrationof old-fashionedscholarlypracticesin a day of high-falutin'theory'(p. 57).The author deals with prevailing theory throughout the book in a thoughtfulway, but cannot resist judgements such as 'detective fictions offer a compelling alternative to postmodernism'sdoubts about stabletruthsand retrievableevidence' (p. I55).As an archivistI know that no archive is complete, and that the whole truth is therefore unknowable, but that should not deter us, or fictional characters, from seeking versions of the truth. Chapter 4 gives us a lively (in more ways than one since she brings in Penelope Lively)discussionof the contestbetween Historyand Heritage,concentratingon the works of BarryUnsworth and Peter Ackroyd, and debunkingthe Whig interpretation of history as she goes along. In discussingAckroyd's Chatterton she comes up with one of my favouritesentences in the book: 'Plagiarism,theft and forgery [...] may be technically criminal, but they are also at the heart of creativity, going by the names of allusion, echo and inspiration'(pp. I24-25), which brings to mind the novels ofJoyce and Beckett. The following chapter is the strangest,where the romance of the archive conjuresup supernaturalforces and conspiratorialpowers, particularlyin Lempriere's Dictionary by LawrenceNorfolk,which comes in for a good with another,that of xenophobic greyness,this book is well researchedand presents the reader with an insight into the colonizer colonized. UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING ANGELA SMITH Romancesof the Archivein Contemporary British Fiction. By SUZANNE KEEN. Toronto, Buffalo,NY, and London:Universityof Toronto Press.200I. x + 288 pp. $60; ?40. ISBN: 0-8020-3589-2. Suzanne Keen sets out her stall in an excellent introduction in which she says, among many other things, 'I make every effort to write about fiction in terms that a novel-readercan understandwithout resortingto an encyclopedia of literary terms' (p. 6) and 'this book comes out of decades of pleasure reading' (p. 9), both of which I found refreshingand reassuring;as I went on, I was not to be disappointed - she writesin an approachablestyle,with a minimum ofjargon and very few errors, except for the consistent mis-spellingof 'siege'. From time to time she comes up with marvellousmetaphors...

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