Alternative History and World War II
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http://lib.uliege.be https://matheo.uliege.be Alternative History and World War II: Subversive or Conservative?A Case Study of Dick's The Man in the High Castle, Harris' Fatherland and Roth's The Plot Against America Auteur : Divoy, Aurore Promoteur(s) : Delville, Michel Faculté : Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres Diplôme : Master en langues et lettres modernes, orientation germaniques, à finalité didactique Année académique : 2018-2019 URI/URL : http://hdl.handle.net/2268.2/8341 Avertissement à l'attention des usagers : Tous les documents placés en accès ouvert sur le site le site MatheO sont protégés par le droit d'auteur. 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Toute utilisation non explicitement autorisée ci-avant (telle que par exemple, la modification du document ou son résumé) nécessite l'autorisation préalable et expresse des auteurs ou de leurs ayants droit. Université de Liège Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres Département de Langues modernes : Linguistique, littérature et traduction Alternative history and World War II: Subversive or conservative? A case study of Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, Harris’ Fatherland and Roth’s The Plot Against America Travail de fin d’études présenté par DIVOY Aurore en vue de l’obtention du grade de master en langues et littératures modernes, orientation germaniques à finalité didactique Promoteur : Prof. Michel Delville _____________________________________________________________________________ Année académique 2018-2019 Acknowledgments Contingency, uncertainty, chaos, were certainly words that I often encountered during the writing of this master thesis. Both literally, because of their obvious relevance to this field of research, but also in a more figurative light. Indeed, it took some time to take in all those new pieces of information, to analyse those novels and to, hopefully, succeed in writing a meaningful whole. Nonetheless, I derived much pleasure from trying to establish new connections and to add as many nuances as possible to this work. Of course, during this process, I had the chance to be guided by a Professor whose general and literary considerations have always awaken profound respect and admiration on my behalf. I address my thanks to Professor Delville, without whom this subject will not have been known to me. Your remarks always pushed me in new directions that I had left unexplored and I am grateful to have had many enlightening discussions and classes with you. My thanks also go to both jury members, Laura Gerday and Patricia Willson. I thank you for the effort you put reading this work and enabling this work to evolve through your useful and critical remarks. I know that this theme is not usual but I hope you enjoy the content and form of this master thesis and that it will open up new pathways for you. In this thesis there are traces of so many classes and Professors that have helped me to discover concepts and works which have left a lasting impression upon my mind. I would like to address special thanks to Mrs. Ledent whose influence has profoundly shaped my view of literature and without whom the reflection on “conservative/subversive” would not have come to be. Besides this academic support and the major impact of my professors, I also would like to thank people who have supported me on a more personal level. I thank my family and closest friends for believing in me, even when I doubted as to where this thesis would actually lead. I also thank all these classmates and acquaintances with whom I have talked and who have shared their insights. I thank those people and friends with whom I have spent so many hours at the library or those who simply helped me grow and become the person I am today. For once, let us not ask the question “what if” and just contemplate the fact that there is my work, and that it is just here for you to appreciate, comment and criticize. Can anyone alter it? he wondered. All of us combined… or one great figure… or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And our lives, our world, hanging on it. Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle CONTENTS 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Genres of Alternative history ............................................................................ 3 1.1.1 Alternative history – a broader context ................................................................. 3 1.1.2 Alternative history as a literary genre .................................................................. 10 1.1.2.1 Terminology: Uchronia, alternate history or alternative history? ................... 10 1.1.2.2 Uchronia and utopia ......................................................................................... 11 1.1.2.3 Alternative history’s link with science-fiction .................................................. 13 1.1.2.4 A matter of classification .................................................................................. 18 2 Corpus and genre meta-text ........................................................................... 24 2.1 Porosity and metafiction ......................................................................................... 24 2.2 World War II ..................................................................................................................28 2.2.1 Heroes .................................................................................................................. 29 2.2.2 Wars ..................................................................................................................... 30 2.2.3 Empires and Americas .......................................................................................... 32 2.2.4 World War II ......................................................................................................... 38 2.3 Corpus ............................................................................................................................ 41 3 Case study ............................................................................................................ 48 3.1 Paratext ........................................................................................................................ 48 3.1.1 Epitext................................................................................................................... 50 3.1.2 Peritext ................................................................................................................. 54 3.1.2.1 At the interstice of the text .............................................................................. 55 3.1.2.2 Author’s note, acknowledgments .................................................................... 60 3.2 Metafiction ....................................................................................................................64 3.2.1 The detective plot ................................................................................................ 65 3.2.2 Narrative and storytelling .................................................................................... 68 3.2.3 Mise en abyme ..................................................................................................... 73 3.2.3.1 The Grasshopper Lies Heavy ............................................................................. 74 3.2.3.2 Literature and the act of writing ...................................................................... 78 3.2.3.3 Counterfactual thinking .................................................................................... 80 3.3 Banal nationalism and cultivation of culture ........................................ 83 3.3.1 Namings, statues and portraits ............................................................................ 85 3.3.2 Propaganda, absorption and assimilation............................................................ 88 3.4 History ............................................................................................................................ 93 3.4.1 Historicity ............................................................................................................. 93 3.4.2 Losers and winners ............................................................................................... 96 4 Between subversive and conservative ......................................................... 98 5 Works Cited ......................................................................................................... 103 5.1 Primary sources: .....................................................................................................