History, knowledge and narration: Alexandre Herculano’s “crónicas-romances"

Abstract

Regarded by critics as archetypes of Portuguese romantic literature, the historical tales and novels of Alexandre Herculano have been subjected to various studies tending to highlight their aesthetic value. The present article intends, however, to concentrate on the historical component of them. Its main thesis is that, taking to its ultimate consequences the poetic principles of Walter Scott’s model of the historical novel, Herculano wrote a set of “crónicas-romances” or historic-fictional reconstructions of the medieval Portuguese past in which he cared less about the configuration of plots than the composition of historical contexts capable of generating a feeling of nationality among the Portuguese middle classes. This article intends to contribute to the theoretical discussion about the relationship between literature and history, highlighting above all that the knowledge of the past has not been exclusive patrimony of historiography and that the narrative fiction has made important contributions in this matter.