A war novel, or military fiction, is a novel about war in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield or in a civilian setting where the characters are preoccupied with preparing for, suffering the effects of, or recovering from war. Many works within the genre are also classed as historical fiction.
Facts
Place of OriginRooted in classical and medieval epic poetry, especially Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid and the Old English Beowulf. 1 Notable ExampleErich Maria Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929), a worldwide bestseller depicting trench warfare from a German infantryman's viewpoint. 1 Defining TraitA novel centered on a battlefield or home-front setting, following characters preparing for, suffering from or recovering from war. 1 Connections
Associated With
Gruppe 47, Movements Gruppe 47's Kahlschlag (clear-cutting) realism produced defining German war novels of the postwar decade.
Vittorini and Fenoglio's Neorealist fiction is dominated by war and Resistance subject matter.
Form Of Genre
Sources
1. War Novel (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationen.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_novel, lead paragraph, second sentence
It is a novel in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield, or in a civilian setting (or home front), where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, suffering the effects of, or recovering from war.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_novel, Origins section, first sentence
The war novel's origins are in the epic poetry of the classical and medieval periods, especially Homer's The Iliad, Virgil's The Aeneid, sagas like the Old English Beowulf, and Arthurian literature.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_novel, World War I section, Remarque sentence
In 1929, Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front) was a massive, worldwide bestseller, not least for its brutally realistic account of the horrors of trench warfare from the perspective of a German infantryman.
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