A fiery heart and What constitutes a source? A novelist's approach to historical research

Robbins, E (2026) A fiery heart and What constitutes a source? A novelist's approach to historical research. PhD thesis, Bath Spa University.

Abstract

This thesis includes the novel, A Fiery Heart, and the contextual research 'What constitutes a source? A novelist's approach to historical research.' The project as a whole raises questions about historical fiction and cross-cultural exchange: what does it mean to write about a time and place that leaves little in the way of a written archive? What do I make of the influence that personal, often-imperfect sources like letters, poems and items of material culture have had upon my work? In A Fiery Heart, I retell the true story of an English woman and Syrian man who fell in love in the 1800s and against all odds, remained married for the rest of their lives. In 'What constitutes a source?' I give a personal, writerly case-study of the historical materials I worked with to write my novel: how I found them, how I read them, and how they informed the characters who populate A Fiery Heart. In Chapter One, I give a brief, personal introduction about the challenge of finding materials on my subject and the nature of the materials I did find. In Chapter Two, I dig more deeply into some specifics that arose for me as I read and interpreted my sources, particularly how I needed to rethink what I knew about raids, which are an important part of my novel. In Chapter Three, I use the study of material culture, particularly the desert tent, to help me draw conclusions about the labour that women undertook in the Syrian desert, and what it meant. I also look at Jane's, the traveller's, relationship to local women's work. Finally, A Fiery Heart, is set in Syria, but neither Jane nor I are Syrian. I conclude by discussing the novelists and historians who helped me think through my goals for this novel, and what it meant to me to write about the Syrian desert from the outside. Exploring these subjects helped me to write A Fiery Heart. I hope that what I found will be of use to other writers too.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	PhD by Practice, creative writing, novel, primary sources, historical fiction, historical research, cross-cultural exchange, material culture, Syria
Divisions:	School of Creative and Cultural Arts
Date Deposited:	07 Oct 2026 11:05
Last Modified:	08 Oct 2026 12:58
URN:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/17995

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