Literature, History, and the Connections We Make

As someone with an avid interest in literature and history, I’m partial to texts that merge these interests.  This is where I intend to focus on and explore.  As this is obviously quite broad, I’ll be focusing on World War II in literature.  This ranges from historical fiction to memoirs and autobiographical work to graphic novels. 

Diary of Anne Frank

Going in, World War II is an area that I consider myself to be knowledgeable in, both from academic and personal study.  Thinking of this as if it were a unit I were to cover in a classroom, this background knowledge is great for providing lessons on contextualization.  I’ve focused my own study largely on the European theater, but still know a fair amount about the Pacific theater.  As a result, I feel inclined to focus on the European theater and place the Pacific in the greater context of this project. 

There’s also a significant amount of literature on this topic, I’ve found it geared both towards adults and young adults.  I’m inclined to focus on young adult literature.  A number of texts come to mind, even when narrowing the topic down to YA.  For example: The Book Thief, Number the Stars, Maus, and Barefoot Gen.  A number of texts, such as The Diary of Anne Frank (image and link above) and Elie Wiesels Night, are already found in many English classrooms. 

So I’ve stroked my ego enough by talking about what I know about World War II and the texts I’ve read.  What can I stand to learn by continuing to focus my attention on this area?  I’m interested in placing historical fiction in conjunction with autobiographical texts, and focusing on the different reading strategies used for these texts in the classroom.  I'm also interested in learning more ways that these texts can inform the ways that we look at current events.