‘All I have are fragments’: Ephemera and Cultural Memory in Contemporary Historical Fiction about the First World War

More than a century after its end, the First World War continues to loom large in cultural memory at large and in contemporary fiction in particular, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. However, both commemorative practice and literary representation of the war remain overwhelmingly dominated by a narrowly conceived narrative of the war as fought by white, middle-class men on the Western Front. This article explores the role played by ephemera – defined broadly as any small, portable items and print materials that are not books – in shaping contemporary commemorative discourse and historical fiction about the First World War. It proposes that paying attention to the ephemera that inform writing about the First World War offers a valuable tool to understand and critique the limitations and opportunities of literary contributions to the war’s legacy in the present.