Tyranny, Feudalism and the Third Reich: The Nature of Historical Emplotments in Ken Follet’s Winter of the World and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe

Abstract

Hayden White, in his controversial Metahistory, analyses the historical material handled by fiction writers and develops the concept of emplotment or the narrating of stories based on their form. He proves satire to be based on Contexualist and Liberalist theories. Likewise, romance is based on Formist and Anarchist theories. The paper evaluates Ken Follett’s Winter of the World as a satirical emplotment where the agents are susceptible to the system which never changes. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott may appear to be a celebration of chivalry but it is in fact a Formist writing where the events reveal the historical plot behind the fictional plot.