Why and How Should We ‘Remember’ the Great War?

• Authors: Sokołowska-Paryż Marzena

Abstracts

In his alternate history novel After Dachau, Daniel Quinn envisages a chilling dystopian reality two thousand years after the Second World War. The most meaningful scene is set in a history class during which it becomes clear that for both the teacher and the students the battle of Verdun has as little meaning as the battles of Thermopylae and Hastings (120). Despite its ostentatiously implausible plot, Quinn’s novel poses the highly relevant question of the impact of an inevitable and ever-increasing temporal distance on the signifi cance of historical events for contemporary and future generations. In other words, how are societies to ‘remember’ their past if there is no one left who actually remembers it?

Keywords

EN

The Great War; historical distance; belatedness; cultural memory; alternate history; the Last Veteran

• Publisher: Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw
• Journal: Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2018
• Issue: 27/3
• Pages: 5-11

Contributors

author

Sokołowska-Paryż Marzena

• University of Warsaw

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