REPRESENTATIONS OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL AMERICAN FICTION

This paper investigates representations of American foreign policy in contemporary American historical fiction of the Third Crusade. In this paper, I argue that in his novel The Swords of Faith (2010), Richard Warren Field deploys the analogy of the Third Crusade to reflect on the current American foreign policy. I maintain that Field creates historical parallels between Richard the Lionheart?s foreign policies towards the East in the medieval times and those of the United States in our modern times since the Cold War. Through presenting Richard as frequently deploying religious, moral and humanitarian and self-defence discourses to justify his military interference in other countries? affairs without exposing his real motivations, Field, by means of historical analogy, constructs America?s contemporary foreign policy as a continuation to a long history of overseas interference where the American administrations never state to the public the real intentions behind their interventionist acts. I contend that ultimately, Field tries to urge for more public awareness of American foreign relationships with other countries.