Twentieth-Century Narratives of War

This final chapter recalls some of the issues raised in the preceding chapters, focusing on the content, context and limits of narrative. Three topics in particular are addressed: the rise and fall of narrative templates, the institutionalization of modern forms of narrativization and the non-narrativized traces of war experiences. All three subjects relate to major turns in the twentieth-century development of war narratives: the extension of character types and positions outside the story lines of national honour, heroism and bravery; the recognition of the civilian survivor-witness as a character type; and the recognition of mental distress – from ‘shell shock’ to trauma and PTSD, guilt and shame – in the aftermath of war.