Feminist historical fiction or commercial entertainment? (In)Authenticity in Philippa Gregory's portrayal of Catherine of Aragon

Abstract

[eng] Philippa Gregory claims to be a “feminist, radical historian” (Ágútsdóttir 2015, 144) who re-examines patriarchal historical discourse. This article explores Gregory’s representation of Catherine of Aragon, placing Gregory within Britain’s historical novel tradition and arguing for a joint analysis of three novels—The Constant Princess (2005), The King’s Curse (2014) and Three Sisters, Three Queens (2016). Informed by Carr’s model of feminist empowerment and Parkins’ notion of agency as embodied practice, the analysis scrutinises aspects of characterisation and narrative technique in order to assess whether Gregory’s texts portray an empowered woman endowed with (historical) agency. Drawing on Saxton’s notion of “authenticity” as “verisimilitude of accuracy” (2020a, 128), it is argued that the texts under analysis seem to replicate rather than subvert the contradictions of the popular genres they are heavily indebted to, specifically romance and the erotic historical. While, in line with recent research, it is tempting to interpret Gregory’s take on Catherine of Aragon as not being feminist but postfeminist, this article concludes that the essentially inauthentic portrayal provided is more closely related to the author’s unsuccessful attempt at replicating her trademark controversy-seeking literary formula than to her possibly postfeminist endeavours.