Henry VIII in Twenty-First Century Popular Culture

This book examines the role of historians, novelists, directors, and their audiences in shaping twenty-first century versions of Henry VIII. It shows how popular stories and histories contribute to a change in how Henry VIII is seen and discusses the debates surrounding these changes.

Each age produces its own Henry(s). This innovative study in popular culture examines how novels, films, TV-series and historiography shape new versions of Henry VIII for the twenty-first century. From The Other Boleyn Girl to The Tudors, 2009’s quint-centenary celebrations of Henry’s coronation and Wolf Hall, (hi)stories are produced, distributed and used in very different ways. In each case, the producers’ intentions, the narrative and the targeted audiences all contribute to the discourses on Henry VIII. However, there no longer exists a universally accepted popularization of Tudor history, so certain representations can lead to intense debates, for instance in case of the TV-show The Tudors.Detailed studies of how audiences appropriate the narratives complement a thorough analysis of each text. In this manner, the monograph examines how different sense-resources are shaped into histories in various new subgenres and how the audiences, too, actively compare these histories. All of this takes place within an increasingly diverse historical culture. Simple notions of history as a top-down process are refuted as the role of the consumers and the use which they make of the individual histories is highlighted.