Welcome to the Australasian Christian Writers Tuesday Book Chat, where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
When do you think a contemporary novel becomes a historical (or vice versa)?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation in a comment on this post or in a comment on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
When I first read this question, I thought hmm… what is the current definition of historical vs. contemporary?
My understanding is seventy to eighty years back from the present day is historical. A time period is typically considered historical when the current generation of living people are either too young to remember much about life back then or weren’t yet born.
Using that estimation, World War 2 would be considered historical. The 1950’s post-war decade is borderline, and could be considered either historical or contemporary.
What do you think? When do you think a contemporary novel becomes a historical (or vice versa)?
And don’t forget: if you’d like to participate in our weekly Book Chat by posting the question and your answer on your blog, drop us an email via our Contact page and we’ll send you the list of questions for 2019.
That’s kind of a hard question, I think I would consider 1950 and the years before that would be considered Historic.
Hi Alicia, yes, it’s not an easy question. Life in the 1950’s is very different to life now. 🙂
My first response is a realisation that the stories from my parent’s childhood fit into your definition, and that I am only eleven years away from joining them as a potential historical character. That changes everything!
I often find it hard to relate to stories set too far in the past, because I have a difficulty making an emotional connection between what I see on the page and how those characters inhabit their story world. But I can connect with my own parents.
And they told me stories about their own parent’s earlier life. Strangers who only live in my memory because of my relationship with my family, and because I can visit the locations in the real world.
Thanks for challenging me to reconsider my prejudice against historical fiction by inspiring this revelation )i(
Hi Chrissy, Interestingly, you’ve touched on one of the reasons why ‘historical’ is often defined as 80+ years ago. Some readers aren’t happy to be labelled ‘historic’ because they can recall living in the historical time period. 🙂
I had heard books set up to and during the Vietnam war were now considered historical. The question is a little confusing. I would consider a book set in the past even during the 60’s and 70’s is starting to be historical because they are set in a different era.
With the way the world is moving with technology etc even contemporary books written towards the end of last century are now showing their age .
Hi Jenny, Ten year ago I remember Catherine West blogging about her rejections from publishers for her debut book ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’ (A great read – I really enjoyed it). A big issue was the book was set during the Vietnam War, which was a kind of no-mans-land time period. It was too contemporary to be historical (less than 50 years back from 2010), but the world in the twenty-first century was very different to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In 2019 I think a Vietnam War era book would be an easier sell because we’ve hit the 50 year mark, but it may be labeled ‘contemporary’ rather than ‘historical’ as the genre. 🙂
As an archivist, historical value was held in anything over 49 years old. We also had a responsibility to safeguard anything which might potentially become of historical value, which was a moving target. I think there’s no definitive answer. What I consider a recent event is ancient history to my children . I’ve always understood contemporary to mean relevant to me now-ish…
Kate I agree also with the contemporary to be now-ish. I was thinking about the 50 years being history. Like we just had the Moon Landing That I would consider historic.
I’d have to agree with you, Kate and Jenny. My first thought without seeing anyone else’s response was 50 years.
Hi Kate, Yes, that’s one issue facing authors. 2019 is typically what readers expect in a contemporary novel published in 2019. There are time periods that sit in no-mans-land from a genre perspective.
Hi Beth & Jenny, The moon landing and Woodstock, for example, are being talked about as ‘historic’ events. If a book was set during those times, it’s probably not going to be listed as historic.
That said, if anyone can find an example of a book that’s 1. Set 50 or less years ago, and 2. Labeled as a historical genre on Amazon or Goodreads, I’d be curious to read the reviews and see if readers mentioned the genre/time period in their review. 🙂
Great question. One of my WIPs is set in present day and 1952 with reference to WW2. So it’s borderline.
Hi Sue, WW2 was a hard sell 10+ years ago, but is now a very popular historical time period. 1952 should be okay as historical. 🙂
Great question and tricky to answer.
When I was in high school both world wars were taught as modern history. But I would agree that in my view anything older than fifty years could be classified as historical. Back at school we had two classifications, modern or ancient. I’m afraid I’m fast becoming ancient 😁
I guess whether something is historical or contemporary can depend on each individual’s perspective.
Hi Jo’Anne, My apologies for missing replying to your comment last week.
Back in the 1980’s at High School we studied the Vietnam War as part of the History curriculum. There’s a lot of fluidity in the definition, lol. 🙂