During and after the First World War, authors in several of the main belligerent nations presente... more During and after the First World War, authors in several of the main belligerent nations presented the war as a young man's war. The young man's war proved to be a powerful trope, and a myth emerged about the typical trench soldier as handsome, white, and eighteen. In this article, I examine literature about the Great War across several nations--primarily Germany, Great Britain, and France--to demonstrate how and why youth became embedded in the collective memory and representation of the war. I argue, in part, that notions of youth in the early twentieth century allowed participating nations to emphasise innocence and tragedy, claiming the moral high ground in the process. As a result, it is now difficult to accurately depict the First World War soldiers as fathers as well as sons, husbands as well as fiancés, men with careers as well as boys fresh from school. The generation of 1914 must be conceived more broadly, which would disallow easy teleologies to later tragic events in the 1930s.
Representations of Germany's National Socialist past have clustered around two modes of represent... more Representations of Germany's National Socialist past have clustered around two modes of representation in American and, more broadly, English-language popular culture: comedy and horror--with some overlap. For a past that was singularly unfunny, the comedic trope is arguably harder to understand and increasingly more popular. Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, and Nazism have been mobilized since the 1930s in comedies, and since the 1940s in productions characterized by horror, gore, and, concurrently, sex. Such alternating images (even within the same cultural production, like Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed 2009 film Inglourious Basterds) have driven much of the current lay understanding of Nazi history and have shaped historical memory regarding one of the darkest and most morally challenging chapters in human history. Humor has long been viewed as predicated on subversion, or violation of norms, rules, taboos, or expectations; however, humor involving Nazis has also been uncritical and trite.
During and after the First World War, authors in several of the main belligerent nations presente... more During and after the First World War, authors in several of the main belligerent nations presented the war as a young man's war. The young man's war proved to be a powerful trope, and a myth emerged about the typical trench soldier as handsome, white, and eighteen. In this article, I examine literature about the Great War across several nations--primarily Germany, Great Britain, and France--to demonstrate how and why youth became embedded in the collective memory and representation of the war. I argue, in part, that notions of youth in the early twentieth century allowed participating nations to emphasise innocence and tragedy, claiming the moral high ground in the process. As a result, it is now difficult to accurately depict the First World War soldiers as fathers as well as sons, husbands as well as fiancés, men with careers as well as boys fresh from school. The generation of 1914 must be conceived more broadly, which would disallow easy teleologies to later tragic events in the 1930s.
Representations of Germany's National Socialist past have clustered around two modes of represent... more Representations of Germany's National Socialist past have clustered around two modes of representation in American and, more broadly, English-language popular culture: comedy and horror--with some overlap. For a past that was singularly unfunny, the comedic trope is arguably harder to understand and increasingly more popular. Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich, and Nazism have been mobilized since the 1930s in comedies, and since the 1940s in productions characterized by horror, gore, and, concurrently, sex. Such alternating images (even within the same cultural production, like Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed 2009 film Inglourious Basterds) have driven much of the current lay understanding of Nazi history and have shaped historical memory regarding one of the darkest and most morally challenging chapters in human history. Humor has long been viewed as predicated on subversion, or violation of norms, rules, taboos, or expectations; however, humor involving Nazis has also been uncritical and trite.
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