The problem of national self-identification of the characters from American alternate historical prose

Abstract

American fiction is deservedly considered to be one of the largest collections of literary objects dealing with the theme of searching for and gaining national self-identity. American writers, belonging to different ethnic groups, bring elements of folk culture, nostalgia for their roots and reflection on the relationship between generations into their works. They express their point of view on the events, taking place in the world, and their place in it. The purpose of this article is to consider, in the context of the given problem, the characters of American alternate history novels, based on a detailed analysis of the works by R. Conroy “1942“(2009) and D. Quinn “After Dachau“ (2001), united by the point of bifurcation that occurred during the Second World War and directed the historical flow along a new path. The main focus of the article is the consideration of the alternative historical context of literary texts and the analysis of the characters’ personal features, their perception of themselves against the backdrop of crisis events. The relevance of the study is ensured by the keen interest of modern science in the genre of the alternate history novel, which has become one of the leading genres in the literature of the 20th-21st centuries, associated with the recent tendency to rewrite real history and place a new emphasis in understanding historical events, as well as the undying increased attention to the issues of national identity.