In the chapter “History, Theory, and the Contemporary Canadian Historical Novel,”  Wyile discusses the revitalization of Canadian historical fiction, arguing that professional histories and historical fiction have developed over the last few decades to tell “revisionist” stories of previously neglected histories. Using theories from Derrida, Barthes, Foucault and others, Wyile critically examines Canadian historical novels such as The Temptations of Big Bear by Rudy Wiebe, Burning Water by George Bowering, and Igor by Heather Robertson. Wyile also analyzes historical discourse and its intricate relations between power and knowledge, how historical fiction has become more self-conscious and self-reflexive, and makes the argument that both history and literature make meaning of the past – it is unfair to say if one is more legitimate than the other.

In “Speculating in Fiction: Commodity Culture and the Crisis of Historicity,” Wyile explores how some Canadian historical novels remain submerged in the present while representing the past in order to engage with postmodern present and capitalist ethic that has shaped it. Wyile also examines how contemporary historical novels “speculate” in history – on the one hand they produce skepticism about historiographical practice and commodity culture, and on the other hand they are speculatively “investing” in history for the production of marketable fiction. Wyile refers to theorists such as Frederic Jameson, Terry Eagleton, Aijaz Ahmad and others that argue postmodern cultural production is decadent and complicit with contemporary culture, in comparison to theorists like Linda Hutcheon, Brian McHale and Patricia Waugh who regard postmodernism as offering more avenues for political and social critique of cultural production. Wyile analyzes Jane Urquhart’s Away, Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, Thomas Wharton’s Icefields, Susan Swan’s The Biggest Modern Woman of the World, and Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Englishman’s Boy to suggest that historical novels have found solid ground, despite postmodernism – although they often point in conflicting directions.