The First World War has never completely disappeared from the British collective memory since the end of the conflict, but it has especially gained in importance again in the late 1980s and 1990s, both in academia and beyond. The last two decades of the last century indeed saw an explosion in historical writing about the First World War, but also in popular representations. There now exist in Great Britain two main distinct perceptions of the First World War, and their coexistence is seen by some military and political historians in terms of a war of representations that opposes two “Western Fronts”, that of literature and popular culture against that of history. While the latter strives to discover and transmit the “truth” about the past, the former are said to perpetuate what has been called the “myth” of the Great War, understood as an emotionally driven and “false” version of the war. This doctoral dissertation examines fourteen British novels and short stories that were published during the late-twentieth-century “war books boom,” and primarily aims at examining these severe claims of “mythicality,” “ahistoricity,” and lack of creative imagination. It seeks to establish in what forms, to what purposes, and with what effects the First World War has returned in contemporary British fiction. The first part investigates the allegations laid against contemporary WWI fiction by military historians. Chapter 1 first defines the multifaceted term “myth” and looks at the special place it holds in human thought as a foundational story of origins; it also explains how the historical event of the First World War has become part of the British national mythology. Chapter 2 describes the four main elements of the mythical scenario of the Great War (viz. horror, death, futility, and incompetent generalship). It examines how they have shaped the works under scrutiny; it also shows how these writers have attempted to reach beyond the language and imagery handed down by the war poets by telling the “unspoken stories” of the war and rewriting women and the working class back into the postmodern memory of the conflict. Chapter 3 looks at the intertextual dialogue that contemporary WWI writers establish with their poetic forefathers. The second and third parts focus on the recourse to, and conceptualization of, “memory” in contemporary re-imaginings of the First World War. Part Two looks at “shell shock” as the legacy of the war: memory is usually problematized as trauma, as an overwhelming, violent event that has been found impossible to deal with and that therefore lingers, unresolved, in individual and collective memory. Chapter 4 contextualizes the rise of shell shock as a fundamental element in the myth of the war and provides a theoretical framework to the close reading of five novels (i.e. Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy and Another World, as well as Robert Edric’s In Desolate Heaven) that follows in Chapters 5 and 6. These two chapters show how the five selected trauma narratives engage with the contemporary fears of the revenant quality of the past and the possibility of a contagious, transgenerational transmission of trauma. They also raise questions concerning the politics of memory, the adequacy of historical narrative, and the ethics of historical representation. Part Three investigates the questions of remembrance and the duty of memory, which are problematized in all the works under scrutiny. Most contemporary WWI narratives have placed the war in the wider perspective of the century, demonstrating their awareness of their posthistorical situation. Chapter 7 examines the fear that the past is in danger and should be rescued from the work of time and history. Chapter 8 shows how this rescue of the past takes the form of a detective investigation, a metaphor of memory which brings to the fore the agency of memory as process and the inherent textuality of the past, and thus questions the possibility of ever knowing the war. Chapter 9 looks at “sites of memory,” the (textual) traces of the past that make this investigation (im)possible. / La Première guerre mondiale n’a jamais complètement disparu de la mémoire collective britannique, mais elle a à nouveau gagné en importance à la fin des années 80 et pendant les années 90, dans et au-delà du monde universitaire. Les deux dernières décennies du siècle dernier ont en effet été marquées par un foisonnement d’écrits historiques et de représentations populaires sur la Première guerre mondiale. Il existe à présent en Grande Bretagne deux visions de la guerre, et leur co-existence est perçue par certains historiens militaires et politiques en termes de guerre de représentations qui opposerait deux « Fronts de l’Ouest », à savoir le front de la littérature et de la culture populaire d’une part, et celui de l’histoire d’autre part. Alors que les partisans de l’histoire tentent de découvrir et transmettre la « vérité » sur le conflit, les autres perpétuent ce qu’on appelle le « mythe » de la Grande Guerre, c’est-à-dire une version erronée et émotive des événements. Cette dissertation doctorale examine quatorze des romans et nouvelles britanniques publiés pendant le « war books boom » de la fin du vingtième siècle et examine ces sévères reproches d’ahistoricité et manque d’imagination créative. Nous cherchons à établir sous quelles formes, dans quels buts et avec quels effets la Première guerre mondiale est revenue dans la fiction britannique contemporaine. La première partie examine les sévères critiques tenues par les historiens militaires à l’encontre de la « WWI fiction » contemporaine. Le premier chapitre définit le terme « mythe » et la place spéciale qu’il occupe dans la pensée humaine en tant qu’histoire fondatrice ; il explique également comment l’événement historique de la Première guerre mondiale est entré dans la mythologie nationale britannique. Le deuxième chapitre décrit les quatre éléments fondamentaux du scénario mythique de la Grande Guerre (c’est-à-dire l’horreur, la mort, l’absurdité, et l’incompétence des généraux). Il montre comment ces derniers ont modelé les œuvres de notre corpus et comment les auteurs contemporains ont tenté de se distancier du langage et des images transmis par les poètes des tranchées en racontant les récits de guerre restés inexprimés et réinscrivant les femmes et la classe ouvrière dans la mémoire postmoderne du conflit. Le troisième chapitre examine le dialogue intertextuel que les auteurs contemporains établissent avec les écrivains des tranchées, leurs « ancêtres poétiques ». Les deuxième et troisième parties se focalisent sur le concept de mémoire dans les réécritures contemporaines de la Première guerre mondiale. La deuxième partie examine le phénomène de « shell shock » en tant qu’héritage de guerre : la mémoire est en général problématisée comme trauma, comme un événement impossible à intégrer et qui subsiste et persiste comme un poids dans la mémoire individuelle et collective. Le quatrième chapitre explique comment le shell shock est devenu un élément central du mythe de la guerre et fournit un cadre théorique aux exercices de « close reading » qui suivent dans les chapitres cinq et six. Ces deux chapitres montrent comment cinq romans appartenant au genre de la « trauma fiction » (i.e. la trilogie Regeneration et Another World de Pat Barker, ainsi que In Desolate Heaven de Robert Edric) se confrontent à la peur contemporaine d’un possible retour du passé comme revenant et d’une transmission par contagion du trauma. Ces chapitres posent également les questions de la politique de la mémoire, de la pertinence de la narration historique, et de l’éthique de la représentation historique. La troisième partie se penche sur les notions de commémoration et devoir de mémoire, problématisées dans toutes les œuvres du corpus. La plupart des romans contemporains de la Grande Guerre replacent le conflit dans une perspective plus large, celle de tout un siècle, reconnaissant ainsi leur position posthistorique. Le septième chapitre examine la crainte d’un passé mis en danger par l’oubli, les effets du temps et le travail de l’histoire. Le huitième chapitre montre que le sauvetage du passé prend souvent la forme d’une enquête, une métaphore qui met en évidence la double nature de la mémoire comme contenu et process ainsi que la textualité du passé, et remet donc en question la possibilité même de connaître le passé. Le neuvième et dernier chapitre examine les lieux de mémoire, les traces (textuelles) du passé qui rendent cette enquête (im)possible.

This thesis explores the symmetry between theatres and museums, and investigates how a museum experience is similar to a theatrical event. Particularly, this project examines how the Canadian War Museum performs historical narrative through its use of three performative elements of a theatre production: space, objects and actor’s body. Firstly, this thesis analyses how creating a historical narrative is similar to fiction writing and play writing. It follows the argument of Hayden White and Michel de Certeau who recognize a historical narrative as a performative act. Accordingly, this thesis examines the First World War exhibit at the Canadian War Museum as a space of performance. I apply Lubomír Doležel’s literary theory on possible worlds, illustrating how a museum space can create unique characteristics of a possible world of fiction and of history. Secondly, this thesis employs Marie-Laure Ryan’s theory of narrativity to discuss how museum objects construct and perform their stories. I argue that the objects in museums are presented to the public in a state of museality similar to the condition of theatricality in a theatre performance. Lastly, this thesis investigates the performance of people by applying various theories of performance, such as Michael Kirby’s non-acting/acting continuum, Jiří Veltruský’s concept of the stage figure, and Freddie Rokem’s theories of actors as “hyper-historians.” In this way, this thesis explores concrete case studies of employee/visitor interactions and expands on how these communications transform the people within the walls of the museum into performers of historical narrative. Moreover, according to Antoine Prost, the museum as an institution is an educational and cultural authority. As a result, in all of these performative situations, the Canadian War Museum presents a historical narrative to its visitors with which it can help shape a sense of national identity, the events Canadians choose to commemorate and their personal and/or collective memories. In its interdisciplinary scope, this thesis calls upon theories from a variety of academic fields, such as performance studies, history and cultural studies, museology, and literary studies. Most importantly, however, this project offers a new perspective on the performative potentials of a national history museum.

This thesis explores the symmetry between theatres and museums, and investigates how a museum experience is similar to a theatrical event. Particularly, this project examines how the Canadian War Museum performs historical narrative through its use of three performative elements of a theatre production: space, objects and actor’s body. Firstly, this thesis analyses how creating a historical narrative is similar to fiction writing and play writing. It follows the argument of Hayden White and Michel de Certeau who recognize a historical narrative as a performative act. Accordingly, this thesis examines the First World War exhibit at the Canadian War Museum as a space of performance. I apply Lubomír Doležel’s literary theory on possible worlds, illustrating how a museum space can create unique characteristics of a possible world of fiction and of history. Secondly, this thesis employs Marie-Laure Ryan’s theory of narrativity to discuss how museum objects construct and perform their stories. I argue that the objects in museums are presented to the public in a state of museality similar to the condition of theatricality in a theatre performance. Lastly, this thesis investigates the performance of people by applying various theories of performance, such as Michael Kirby’s non-acting/acting continuum, Jiří Veltruský’s concept of the stage figure, and Freddie Rokem’s theories of actors as “hyper-historians.” In this way, this thesis explores concrete case studies of employee/visitor interactions and expands on how these communications transform the people within the walls of the museum into performers of historical narrative. Moreover, according to Antoine Prost, the museum as an institution is an educational and cultural authority. As a result, in all of these performative situations, the Canadian War Museum presents a historical narrative to its visitors with which it can help shape a sense of national identity, the events Canadians choose to commemorate and their personal and/or collective memories. In its interdisciplinary scope, this thesis calls upon theories from a variety of academic fields, such as performance studies, history and cultural studies, museology, and literary studies. Most importantly, however, this project offers a new perspective on the performative potentials of a national history museum.

This thesis explores the symmetry between theatres and museums, and investigates how a museum experience is similar to a theatrical event. Particularly, this project examines how the Canadian War Museum performs historical narrative through its use of three performative elements of a theatre production: space, objects and actor’s body. Firstly, this thesis analyses how creating a historical narrative is similar to fiction writing and play writing. It follows the argument of Hayden White and Michel de Certeau who recognize a historical narrative as a performative act. Accordingly, this thesis examines the First World War exhibit at the Canadian War Museum as a space of performance. I apply Lubomír Doležel’s literary theory on possible worlds, illustrating how a museum space can create unique characteristics of a possible world of fiction and of history. Secondly, this thesis employs Marie-Laure Ryan’s theory of narrativity to discuss how museum objects construct and perform their stories. I argue that the objects in museums are presented to the public in a state of museality similar to the condition of theatricality in a theatre performance. Lastly, this thesis investigates the performance of people by applying various theories of performance, such as Michael Kirby’s non-acting/acting continuum, Jiří Veltruský’s concept of the stage figure, and Freddie Rokem’s theories of actors as “hyper-historians.” In this way, this thesis explores concrete case studies of employee/visitor interactions and expands on how these communications transform the people within the walls of the museum into performers of historical narrative. Moreover, according to Antoine Prost, the museum as an institution is an educational and cultural authority. As a result, in all of these performative situations, the Canadian War Museum presents a historical narrative to its visitors with which it can help shape a sense of national identity, the events Canadians choose to commemorate and their personal and/or collective memories. In its interdisciplinary scope, this thesis calls upon theories from a variety of academic fields, such as performance studies, history and cultural studies, museology, and literary studies. Most importantly, however, this project offers a new perspective on the performative potentials of a national history museum.

The Australian Government Internet database, the World War Two Nominal Roll, is problematised and then analysed as a document of patron-sponsored alternative journalism as described by Atton and Hamilton, because it attempts to fulfill functions previously completed in Australia by newspaper publishers and television producers. These functions – of discovering, establishing, editing, contextualizing, recording and publishing memory – have long been regarded as roles of journalism. Later they have been seen as roles also of literary publishing and documentary filmmaking, and most recently of online records management. They became especially evident in the 1990s, the decade of the 50th anniversary of many World War II events, during which many anniversary supplements were published in Australian newspapers and in television documentaries. Partly as a result of this major anniversary, the Australian Government undertook the tasks of discovering, establishing, editing, recording, contextualizing, and publishing World War II military memories as an online database known as the World War Two Nominal Roll. The enactment of this large task required the engagement of a subcontractor who tendered on the basis of skills in records management, and the adoption of a methodology which offered some level of quality assurance of the outputs. The problematisation of this project suggests that the engagement of the subcontractor and the methodology adopted for the World War Two Nominal Roll are analogous to the engagement of professionalized journalists, and the adoption of recognised journalistic methods, for the publication of a media artifact such as an anniversary supplement. In that light, this thesis compares the error rates evident in the Nominal Roll with the literature of error rates in contemporary newspapers, and compares some of the audience effects of publishing the Nominal Roll with those of publishing newspapers. This involves a comprehensive examination and critique of the physical nature of the Roll and the processes of its production. The analysis in the first place suggests that the database Roll is overall more trustworthy than established journalism artifacts but in detail more susceptible to errors of fact and context and less likely to be corrected. This leads to the second assessment that the publication of the database Roll is less effective than newspapers as a means of memorialisation. Finally, the findings suggest that the processes deployed in the compilation of the database Roll would have benefitted from the adoption of aspects of ordinary journalistic routines not used by the database publishers. Reasons for this are proposed and discussed.

The Australian Government Internet database, the World War Two Nominal Roll, is problematised and then analysed as a document of patron-sponsored alternative journalism as described by Atton and Hamilton, because it attempts to fulfill functions previously completed in Australia by newspaper publishers and television producers. These functions – of discovering, establishing, editing, contextualizing, recording and publishing memory – have long been regarded as roles of journalism. Later they have been seen as roles also of literary publishing and documentary filmmaking, and most recently of online records management. They became especially evident in the 1990s, the decade of the 50th anniversary of many World War II events, during which many anniversary supplements were published in Australian newspapers and in television documentaries. Partly as a result of this major anniversary, the Australian Government undertook the tasks of discovering, establishing, editing, recording, contextualizing, and publishing World War II military memories as an online database known as the World War Two Nominal Roll. The enactment of this large task required the engagement of a subcontractor who tendered on the basis of skills in records management, and the adoption of a methodology which offered some level of quality assurance of the outputs. The problematisation of this project suggests that the engagement of the subcontractor and the methodology adopted for the World War Two Nominal Roll are analogous to the engagement of professionalized journalists, and the adoption of recognised journalistic methods, for the publication of a media artifact such as an anniversary supplement. In that light, this thesis compares the error rates evident in the Nominal Roll with the literature of error rates in contemporary newspapers, and compares some of the audience effects of publishing the Nominal Roll with those of publishing newspapers. This involves a comprehensive examination and critique of the physical nature of the Roll and the processes of its production. The analysis in the first place suggests that the database Roll is overall more trustworthy than established journalism artifacts but in detail more susceptible to errors of fact and context and less likely to be corrected. This leads to the second assessment that the publication of the database Roll is less effective than newspapers as a means of memorialisation. Finally, the findings suggest that the processes deployed in the compilation of the database Roll would have benefitted from the adoption of aspects of ordinary journalistic routines not used by the database publishers. Reasons for this are proposed and discussed.

The Australian Government Internet database, the World War Two Nominal Roll, is problematised and then analysed as a document of patron-sponsored alternative journalism as described by Atton and Hamilton, because it attempts to fulfill functions previously completed in Australia by newspaper publishers and television producers. These functions – of discovering, establishing, editing, contextualizing, recording and publishing memory – have long been regarded as roles of journalism. Later they have been seen as roles also of literary publishing and documentary filmmaking, and most recently of online records management. They became especially evident in the 1990s, the decade of the 50th anniversary of many World War II events, during which many anniversary supplements were published in Australian newspapers and in television documentaries. Partly as a result of this major anniversary, the Australian Government undertook the tasks of discovering, establishing, editing, recording, contextualizing, and publishing World War II military memories as an online database known as the World War Two Nominal Roll. The enactment of this large task required the engagement of a subcontractor who tendered on the basis of skills in records management, and the adoption of a methodology which offered some level of quality assurance of the outputs. The problematisation of this project suggests that the engagement of the subcontractor and the methodology adopted for the World War Two Nominal Roll are analogous to the engagement of professionalized journalists, and the adoption of recognised journalistic methods, for the publication of a media artifact such as an anniversary supplement. In that light, this thesis compares the error rates evident in the Nominal Roll with the literature of error rates in contemporary newspapers, and compares some of the audience effects of publishing the Nominal Roll with those of publishing newspapers. This involves a comprehensive examination and critique of the physical nature of the Roll and the processes of its production. The analysis in the first place suggests that the database Roll is overall more trustworthy than established journalism artifacts but in detail more susceptible to errors of fact and context and less likely to be corrected. This leads to the second assessment that the publication of the database Roll is less effective than newspapers as a means of memorialisation. Finally, the findings suggest that the processes deployed in the compilation of the database Roll would have benefitted from the adoption of aspects of ordinary journalistic routines not used by the database publishers. Reasons for this are proposed and discussed.

The theme of this investigation explores rememoration/commemoration and urban imaginary . This study is grounded on the theoretical domains of History and Anthropology and the dislocation of the notion of commemoration to the discourse analysis operation. Therefore, the two notions are defined separately. The rememoration, on the one hand, as a discourse of, which operates as inter-discourse and the operation of the pre-constructed, le gitimates and supports the commemoration. On the other hand, the commemoration as a discourse about is related to the present time. The rememoration/commemoration together constitute the intra-discourse the line of the subject s discourse as an effect of the interdiscourse about itself. The rememoration vertical axle has two operations: as memory and as founding text. We divided the discursive corpus based on memory place, notion developed by Nora (1984) and which in the discursive order is constituted, according to Courtine (2006), as a file system, a net of formulations from which return statements that update the speeches and knowledge of a discursive formation. The rememoration/commemoration is a place of memory of this discourse and is structured in four instances, represented by the urban institutions: the Érico Verissimo Foundation, which organizes the discursive memory and, determines what has to be observed and what has to be erased; the UNICRUZ (Foundation of Cruz Alta University); the municipal government, and the media. The urban imaginary refers to Cruz Alta, city located in the inland of Rio Grande do Sul state, which is represented in the inner and outer boundaries as Érico Verissimo s land . The writer is the object of rememoration/commemoration and constitutes himself as the object to (cause of willingness) and the object of willingness (the object of this willingness) and he materializes himself in the line of the discourse by the willingness subject perspective. Two questions support our reflection: the first one is How the object of rememoration/commemoration is constituted in urban space? And the second one: which memory s domains operate in this discourse? Our aim is to know how the discourse of rememoration/commemoration as discursive practice of an urban imaginary constitution is represented and institutionalized. The corpus of this file comprehends the period from 1969 to 2006. There from we set apart texts samples of discourse from the instances of delimitated place of memory. We analyzed a complex corpus, which is constituted of varied discursive materialities: documentaries (two), billboards, signs and advertisement, which are materialized in the line of discourse by verbal and non-verbal statements. The analyses show, briefly, the effort of the urban institutions of Cruz Alta in providing visibility to object of rememoration/commemoration: Érico Verissimo. / O tema desta investigação é rememoração/comemoração e imaginário urbano . Buscamos sustentação nos domínios teóricos da História e da Antropologia e deslocamos a noção de comemoração para o funcionamento na análise discursiva. Refletimos acerca da rememoração e da comemoração, definindo as duas noções separadamente. A rememoração, de um lado, como o discurso de, que funciona como interdiscurso e que pelo funcionamento do pré-construído, legitima e sustenta a comemoração. E de outro, a comemoração como o discurso sobre a atualidade. A rememoração/comemoração, juntas, constituem o intradiscurso fio do discurso do sujeito - como efeito do interdiscurso sobre si mesmo. A rememoração eixo vertical tem dois funcionamentos: como memória e como texto fundante. Dividimos o corpus discursivo a partir dos procedimentos de fazer crer , de De Certeau (1994) e do lugar de memória, noção desenvolvida por Nora (1984) e que na ordem do discurso se constitui, de acordo com Courtine (2006), como um sistema de arquivo, uma rede de formulações a partir da qual retornam enunciados que atualizam os dizeres e saberes de uma FD. A rememoração/comemoração é o lugar de memória desse discurso e estrutura-se por quatro instituições da cidade: a Fundação Érico Verissimo, que organiza a memória discursiva e determina o que deve ser visibilizado e o que deve ser apagado; a Unicruz (Fundação Universidade de Cruz Alta); o Poder Público Municipal e a Mídia. O imaginário urbano de que tratamos é Cruz Alta, cidade do interior do Rio Grande do Sul, que se representa para dentro e para fora de seus limites como a terra de Érico Verissimo . O escritor é o objeto de rememoração/comemoração e se constitui como o objeto a (causa do desejo) e o objeto do desejo (o objeto desejado) e se materializa no fio do discurso pela perspectiva do sujeito desejante. Duas questões sustentam nossa reflexão: a primeira é Como o objeto de rememoração/comemoração se constitui no espaço urbano? E a segunda: Que domínios de memória funcionam nesse discurso? O corpus de arquivo abrange um espaço temporal que vai de 1969 a 2006. Dele recortamos textos exemplares do discurso a partir de lugares, que se constituem a partir do museu. Delimitamos quatro lugares: O museu, a Unicruz, o Poder Público Municipal e a Mídia. Trabalhamos com um corpus complexo, que se constitui de diferentes materialidades discursivas: documentário (dois), outdoors, placas e peças publicitárias que se materializam no fio do discurso por enunciados verbais e não-verbais. As análises apontaram o esforço de instituições urbanas de Cruz Alta em dar visibilidade ao objeto de rememoração/comemoração: Érico Verissimo.

La recopilación de testimonios que se llevó a cabo en el ámbito de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (2001-2003) suscitó dinámicas socioculturales inéditas en cuanto a la producción de historias locales sobre el conflicto interno. En este artículo nos centraremos primero en la actuación carnavalesca realizada en el distrito de Ocros, donde se escenificaron las masacres perpetradas por el PCP-Sendero Luminoso, así como en la consiguiente organización en rondas campesinas de los sobrevivientes. Más allá de la conmemoración de este episodio, ¿cómo entender la realización de esta performance y los objetivos que conlleva? ¿Qué muestran o qué silencian los actores con esta ‘escritura’ del pasado de violencia, necesariamente fragmentaria? Enfocándonos en las creaciones coreográficas y narrativas de la violencia, procuraremos entender los usos estratégicos a los que dan lugar. Finalmente, veremos de qué manera las distintas memorias se enfrentan y articulan entre sí para mostrar los mecanismos de legitimación y las lógicas diferentesde esas proyecciones públicas de la historia reciente. / The gathering of testimonials by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the aftermath of the armed conflict opposing the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla and the Peruvian state has led to original socio-cultural dynamics around the local histories of the war. This article will focus on a carnival performance carried out in the Andean district of Ocros (Prov. of Huamanga), staging the massacres committed by the Sendero Luminoso and the struggle of the peasant militias. Beyond the commemoration of this episode, what are the issues and the objectives that underlie the performance? What view is given and what is left in silence, unsaid, by the actors in this type of unavoidably fragmentary ‘writing’ of the history of violence? Analyzing both the choreographic and the narrative production concerning the war, we will address the strategic uses they give rise to. Finally, we will focus on the way in which different memories compete and articulate to one another, so as to determine the mechanisms of legitimation and the competitive logics at playin these public projections of recent history.