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eBook details
- Title: Virtual Histories and Counterfactual Myths: Christopher Priest's the Separation (Critical Essay)
- Author : Extrapolation
- Release Date : January 22, 2007
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 196 KB
Description
Among the consequences of the ongoing crisis in academic historical studies provoked by postmodernist and poststructuralist theories (see Evans) has been the rise of both popular and counterfactual history. These developments can be seen simultaneously in the recent success of collections such as Virtual History (1997) edited by Niall Ferguson and the two volumes edited by Robert Cowley, What If? (1999) and More What If? (2001). The UK editions of these books all feature Adolf Hitler prominently on their covers with swastikas variously draped over the Houses of Parliament or superimposed on Union Jacks. The idea of Nazi triumph has long held a popular currency, reflected in the success of thrillers such as Robert Harris's Fatherland (1992) and Len Deighton's SSGB (1978). The idea even predates the Second World War, with the 1937 Swastika Night by Katherine Burdekin (writing as Murray Constantine) depicting Europe after seven centuries of Nazi domination. It is a staple enough theme in science fiction to have a detailed entry by John Clute, "Hitler Wins," in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and, of course, the idea is central to the classic alternate history, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (1962). The best account of the illicit pleasure involved in this potentially seamy sub-genre was written by George Orwell in 1940: While Christopher Priest's The Separation deserves to be widely read and acknowledged as a classic alternate history, it does not simply replay the populist trope of Nazi victory and barely mentions Hitler. Instead, the key counterfactual scenario is the signing of an armistice between Britain and Germany in May 1941. By contrasting The Separation with some of the examples of recent popular history given above, I hope to draw some conclusions about the pleasure and the pain inherent to the counterfactual form.
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