H is for History in Fiction

A Medieval Witch

Today for A to Z Challenge I'll talk about history. In high school, I was often bored by history, or at least the way that my history teachers approached it. So, when I got a job teaching college lit, and was told I'd have to lecture on the historical periods surrounding our texts, I was petrified. For instance, I recalled next to nothing from high school Greek history. I actually went to B & N and bought Greek History for Dummies. I'm no dummy, but I needed a quick shot. Turns out that there is a way to make history come alive. I do that in large part through talking about the odd moments that stick in my mind. Here are a few, from the Greek period through to Elizabethan.

The big hypocrisy of Pericles' radical democracy in Athens was that while women were not even allowed citizenship, men had to prove that their mothers were born in Athens to prove their own citizenship! Also, Athenians and Spartans had a rivalry in more than just fighting style-they were jealous of each others' fashions and the fact that Spartan women could work out in gymnasiums and have multiple lovers!

In Medieval times, people believed that gap-toothed women were highly sexed, and that a pimply man had a flawed soul. This was a time when people were truly judged by surface appearance.

In Dr. Faustus, written during the Elizabethan period in England, there is a reference to Native Americans as "Spanish Moors". This proves that people "across the pond" were quite aware that the Spanish were lording it over the Native American Indians in what's now America. Also at that time, white and black magic were seen as coming from the bible. People believed literally in the devil, and prayed both to God and Night Hags!

It's fun to learn about history, and quite helpful when contemplating writing an historical novel or fantasy. I considered my first YA novel, Refugees, about the friendship between and Afghan boy and an American girl, historical fiction, even though it was about contemporary matters. The reason? It dealt with the fallout from 9/11, which immediately made it a pivotal point in history.

If you were writing historical fiction or fantasy, which period would you love to set in in? Which historical periods interest you the most?