SOURCE: Natter, Wolfgang G. “What Is War Literature and Why Does it Merit Study?” In Literature at War, 1914-1940: Representing the “Time of Greatness” in Germany, pp. 11-34. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Natter discusses the definition of war literature through an examination of German World War I fiction.

One of the most compelling challenges faced by German writers during the First World War and in the interwar period was how to structure an interpretation of meaning upon the events of the war. Whether they viewed the conflict as a moral-cultural mission or a defense against imminent territorial invasion, a struggle of culture between German Geist and Western materialism or an imperialistic battle waged solely for the benefit of national ruling classes, an event tragically devoid of meaning or, finally, as the birth of the new Germany, the issue of how to interpret...