"The poison running in my veins” : postmemory of the Great War in contemporary (auto)biographical narratives

The paper addresses the issue of an inherited memory of the Great War and traces its manifestations in contemporary (auto)biographical narratives. Two writers’ memoirs, i.e. Christopher Isherwood’s Kathleen and Frank (1971) and Doris Lessing’s Alfred and Emily, (2008) have been selected for an in-depth analysis which aims to show how the children of the survivors/casualties of the Great War have struggled with – to use Doris Lessing’s expression – “the poison running in [their] veins”, namely with an inherited memory and trauma of the trenches. Most importantly, the paper postulates that literary and cultural studies on postmemory should be expanded, both thematically and generically, and cover the memory of the Great War.