Myth - Conceptions of World War I in Selected Diaries and Fictional Diaries Written by and for Children

Diaries and epistolatory prose for children both convey and imply a sense of veracity about the factual, social and historical content combined with emotional realism i.e. because the first person narrative is used and the diary recounts personal experience the intimation is that there is a reality, and a set of ‘truths’ which underlie the work, even if it is fiction per se. Study of this epistolatory form in children’s literature demonstrates that through this popular form myths and misconceptions have been and are perpetuated about World War One, even in texts which purport to teach history through this kind of reading experience. The chapter also discusses the change in the representation of war to a personalised history and how this is reflected in a selection of texts for children: Valerie Wilding’s My Story, Road to War: a First World War Girl’s Diary 1916-17 (2008); Marcia Williams’ Archie’s War (2009) and Piet Kuhr’s There We'll Meet Again: A Young German Girl's Diary of the First World War (1982).