Barry Unsworth’s Morality Play: Narrative, detection, history

Abstract

Morality Play is a historical detective novel set in the late fourteenth century and published in 1995, at a time of flourishing for historical fiction in Britain. This article argues that the novel shares some of the features of contemporary British historical fiction (notably, a degree of self-referentiality and a concern with the relationship between reality and representation), but also retains more traditional historical novels’ desire to show the fate of individuals caught at moments of historical change. Using White’s reflections on forms of historical writing and an understanding of the history of detective fiction, the article brings this currently under-examined text to critical attention and, in so doing, contributes to current scholarly understanding of the so-called ‘historical turn’ in late-twentieth century British fiction.