Cultural memory, teaching and contemporary writing about the First World War

Abstract

The centenary commemorations of the First World War have prompted renewed debate as to the ways in which it ought to be remembered in future, not least through teaching and through historical fiction. This article discusses two contemporary collections of short stories and a number of novels published between 1991 and 2014. It reads these modern literary accounts of the First World War against current popular perceptions of and commemorative discourses surrounding the war, including the representation of the war in secondary education and the use of literature in the classroom. In doing so, the article draws in part on a research project that investigated the teaching of the First World War and its literature in English secondary schools between February 2013 and August 2014.