Reading History from A Different Perspective: Making Students Care for History by Creating a Historical Fiction Short Story an Anthropomorphic Narrator

Abstract

Despite a disinterest in history class amongst high school students, young adult historical fiction is an immensely popular genre of novels. Teenagers interest in historical fiction gives authors the unique opportunity to present perspectives of historical events that differ from the predominant narrative using an anthropomorphic narrator. This study investigated whether a historical fiction short story with an anthropomorphic narrator could be used to emotionally invest and interest students more in history than a history class. Participants read a short story about the Battle of Messines, a battle that occurred during World War I, through the perspective of the wind. They then read an article called “This Explosion Was the Biggest Blast Before Atomic Bombs” and a diary from a World War I memoir entitled At Messines Ridge in 1917 to simulate reading material typically found in a history class. They then answered two questionnaires gauging their emotional investment and interest in the subject matter. This study found that short story emotional invested and interested them more in history than the material typically used in a history class.