The stories we tell about the past can tell us a lot about what matters in the present. Nowhere is this clearer than the realm of historical fiction, where a battleground has emerged between those who want verisimilitude and those who prefer revisionism. Costume dramas may once have been the cosy province of dusty prudes, but recent streaming hits Persuasion and Bridgerton have divided viewers over liberties taken in an attempt to appeal to a younger – and very online – crowd.
From a progressive viewpoint, the past can seem not just a different country, but a forbidden world. Because of their context, people in the past were racist, sexist and bigoted – not the sort of characters we want to celebrate in 21st-century pop culture.
