INTRODUCTION

World War I is among the most popular subjects of contemporary historical novels written in English. A century later, its influence on the public consciousness is still strong and its impact on popular culture has been cemented in the recent years by writers such as Pat Barker and Sebastian Faulks. Contemporary novels devoted to World War I reflect the retrospective reassessment of the conflict, focusing on the enormity of the human sacrifice it entailed as well as its moral ambiguity. They have their roots in the inter-war literature of disillusionment, highly critical of the war (Peifer 2007: 1112). Echoes of the novels and memoirs published in the 1920s and 1930s are not only visible in contemporary war novels but they are also entrenched in the collective memory. Paul Fussell describes this phenomenon as ”… the simultaneous and reciprocal process by which life feeds materials to literature while literature returns the favor by conferring forms upon life” (Fussell 2000: preface). Fussell also draws attention to the fact that non-veteran authors writing about World War I imbue it with “the post-modern sensibility,” thus proving that “the present influences the past” (321).

The following paper explores the relationship between the modern imaginings of World War I and the conflict itself seen as an actual historical event. It concerns two contemporary historical novels set during the war: A Whispered Name by William Brodrick (published in 2008) and The Absolutist by John Boyne (published in 2011), arguing that they show the issue of war-time executions through the modern lens, influenced by the recent pardon campaign.

THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND THE SHOT AT DAWN CAMPAIGN

Any discussion of contemporary historical novels is intrinsically tied with the concept of the collective memory, which, as Barbie Zelizer points out, ”… thrives on remaking the residue of past decades into material with contemporary resonance …” (Zelizer 1995: 217). As their authors are not first-hand witnesses of historical events, historical novels rely on written and oral accounts, including poetry and fiction. Therefore, they are tinged with subjective reinterpretations of the past; ”… when successive generations have ‘read’ the war, it has been through the text of memory – or rather ‘memories’ … These memories naturally bear weight of successive events …” (Davis 2003: 127).