From the gates of Troy to the trenches of the Western Front: the representation of war in the "Iliad" and in novels of the of the Great War

Abstract

The following research aims at investigating the diferences and similarities between two sets of war narratives: Homer´s "Iliad" and novels of the Great of 1914-18. Dwelling on Hayden White´s methahistory theory and refraining from discussing the fictional or factional or factual nature of the texts to be analyzed, this thesis is focused on two aspects of the narratives.The main difference regards the role of the individual warfare. Whereas in the "Iliad", we are provided with the powerful, necessarily named warriors, in the Great War novels, "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Paths of Glory", and "Company K", we encounter powerless, nameless soldiers who are overwhelmed by the murderous technology of total war. The hero gives way to the figure of the "Unknown Soldier" in war narrative. The principal feature these narratives share is war´s inherent unpredictability. Both the "Iliad" and the Great War novels represent war as an event whose outcome never comes as previously expected and whose means are disproportionate to its presumed ends, laying bare a gap between what men idealize of war and what men actually encounter.