What if? Or the alternate history genre

What If? or The Alternate History Genre

Статья посвящена относительно новому, но достаточно популярному жанру альтернативной истории. В качестве иллюстрации автор рассматривает три образца этого типа литературы - романы «Мильтон в Америке» (199б)Питера Акройда, «Операция» (1976) Кингсли Эмиса и «Фатерланд» (1992) Роберта Харриса.

This sort of speculations has become an object of serious research in some spheres and is known under various names - cliometrics (from the name of the ancient muse of history Clio), counterfactuals (meaning its contrariness to facts), uchronia (on analogy with “utopia” and meaning “no time”), allohistory (from the Greek word “allo” which means “another, different”), alternative /alternate history. The first two terms are used in historiography and economics while the other three are applied to works of fiction and the last of them is the most frequently used one.

It is considered that the genre was initiated by an essay written by the English historian George Trevelyan (1876-1962) in which he tried to imagine the course European history might have taken if Napoleon had won the Waterloo battle.

Counterfactuals have become very popular lately which is evident from the number of books and internet sites dedicated to it. Suffice it to mention the 6 What if series edited by Robert Cowley one of the books of which is titled ‘Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been’. Here are but a few of the book’s 25 might-have-beens: ‘Pontius Pilate Spares Jesus.’, ‘Repulse at Hastings, October 14, 1066’, ‘Napoleon’s Invasion of North America’, No Finland Station (A Russian Revolution Without Lenin) ’, ‘What if Pizarro Had Not Found Potato in Peru? ’ In the Introduction Cowley writes “That these scenarios have entertainment value is undeniable, but their purpose is also to provoke. There is no better way of understanding what did happen in history than to contemplate what very well might have happened. ...History is merely the sum of millions of human decisions - which may be the decision to elevate the one person who makes decisions for all of us. But history too may well depend on a single accident - which has the power to abrogate all those thousands and millions of individual decisions”. Cowley concludes his brief essay with the idea that “The only fixed rule of history is that there are no rales. This very ralelessness is what makes the study of history so fall of surprise and fascination” (Cowley 2003 :X VII).

Alternate history is fairly popular with fiction writers and though this genre is relatively young and is not taken seriously by scholars for they consider it a kind of science or even pulp fiction it numbers a lot of works, has its own rules and laws, its specific terminology, its bestsellers, etc. One of the most essential and indispensable elements of alternate history is the point of divergence (POD), i.e. the moment when the narrative begins to diverge from the true course of events. It may be either present in the story itself, or must be explicit enough for the reader. It goes without saying that a reader must be more or less aware of the real developments to be able to fully appreciate the alternative version.

The most frequent themes of alternate history novels are wars, revolutions and geographical discoveries. Thus, there are about one hundred and fifty alternate versions of the XX century developments without WWII, and about fifty works whose authors present the USA’s history with a different outcome of the Civil War. Peter Ackroyd’s novel "Milton in America’ (1996) also suggests an alternative version of North America’s history. It is partially built on the life story of the great English poet and publicist John Milton (1608-1674) who was one of Oliver Cromwell’s comrades-in-arms during the Civil War in England. With his fiery pamphlets and poetic works he propagated the ideas of Puritanism which made up the ideological basis of the Revolution.

It is common knowledge that after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Milton had to go into the hiding, but was arrested and had to spend some time in prison. Some of his books were destroyed. Yet it was during the last decade of his life that he, in spite of his blindness, created his masterpieces - the epic poems ‘Paradise Lost’, ‘Paradise Regained’ and his drama ‘Samson Agonistes’, all built on biblical subjects.

It is the year 1660 that is the Point of Divergence in Ackroyd’s novel. Instead of staying in England, as was the case with real Milton, Ackroyd’s hero flees for life to North America (as many puritans did at that time). On his way to Bristol he is joined by a common boy whom he makes his servant and secretary naming him Goosequil, for one of the boy’s duties was to write a journal to his dictation. They are shipwrecked near the shores of America and turn out to be the only two survivors. Milton takes it for a sign of his special predestination in the Promised Land. He is warmly welcomed by a group of puritan brethren who arrived in America earlier and with their help he founds a town called New Milton in his honour.

He becomes not only a spiritual leader of the community but also takes on himself administrative and judicial duties. He issues very strict laws and introduces severe punishment for even minor transgression and capital one for more serious crimes. Theocracy which was a reality in the XVII century in America turns into autocracy under the rule of Ackroyd’s hero. Milton also starts missionary work striving to convert Indians into Christianity treating them as second-rate people at that. When a Catholic community is set up in the neighbourhood Milton launches a real warfare against them. He is guided not only by his inherent resentment towards Catholics but also by the fear that their cheerfulness and relatively loose morals might ruin his brethren’s piety. The self-imposed duties leave Milton no time for literary work.

Ackroyd’s novel abounds in various allusions - biblical, historical, literary. Among the latter there are quotations from Milton’s own poems. This, as well as numerous instances of the author-reader game, makes ‘Milton in America’ a typically postmodernist work. And as one it hardly gives the reader any definite clue as to the writer’s aim in giving the alternative version of Milton’s life. Yet, undoubtedly the novel about the virtual past is projected into the present. It reminds us of the dangers of religious fanaticism and its destructive consequences.

A contrary religious-political world lay-out is presented by Kingsley Amis in “one of his most inventive works” (Williams 1992:95) - the novel ‘The Alteration’ (1976) which is “set in a parallel contemporary world in which there has been no Reformation and the Papacy still wields supreme power” (Ousby 1992:26). The action of the novel takes place in 1976 and opens with the scene of the funeral of the English King Stephen III which is attended by a number of eminent people from all over the world - the young King William V, the Archbishop of Canterbury, representatives of royal families of Portugal, Lithuania, India, Muscovy, Turkey, etc. (for all these countries are monarchies), as well as Eric Himmler and Lavrentius Beria. Among the guests are also the Archpresbyter of Amoldstown, head of the Church of New England, and Cornelius van den Haag, New Englander Ambassador to England. These two are treated with manifest hostile curiosity for being Schismatic, or “in plainer terms, a surplice heretic” (Amis 2004: 9). The POD in the novel implicitly lies in the XVI century - due to Catherine of Aragon and thanks to the Holy Victory (probably in a war against Schismatics, i.e. Protestants) England remained a Catholic country, the Cathedral Basilica of St. George being the “mother church of England and of the whole English Empire overseas” (Amis 2004:7). Rome is still the centre of Christendom and the present Pope of Rome John XXIV, an Englishman, considers science to be enemy No.l of his Church. It is New Englander’s advances in science, e.g. in application of electricity, and professing evolutionary ideas, that underlie the Catholics’ resentment of that country.

It was during the funeral ceremony that all those present were thrilled by the angelical voice of Hubert Anvil, a ten-year old son of a London merchant. The boy’s dramatic escape from the imminent alteration (castration) planned by priests to preserve his voice makes up the plot of the novel. Yet at the end of the novel the dramatism and seriousness of the story are thwarted by an unexpected twist - when Hubert is safely boarded on the New Englander aircraft “Edgar Allan

Poe”, named so after “a brilliant young general who had perished at the moment of his victory over the combined invading forces of Louisiana and Mexico in 1848-1850” (Amis 2004: 177) he is suddenly taken ill with inflammation of his testicles, has to be put in a London hospital where he is to undergo an operation which, practically, is but an alteration, though for medical reasons. The epilogue portrays Hubert fifteen years later, quite content with his fate, preparing to sing in a new production at a Rome theatre.

Amis’ caustic satire of the imaginary world is not restricted to the conservatism and bigotry of the Catholic world. The Republic of New Englander with the First Citizen at its head is lashed at, too, for its policy of segregation of Indians.

Among the best known alternate history novels dealing with the theme of the Second World War is ’'Fatherland’ (1992) by Robert Harris. It has an entertaining detective plot based on real events and people. The scene is set in April 1964 during the celebration of the seventy-fifth birthday of Adolf Hitler who is still head of the Third Reich. The protagonist Xavier March, homicide investigator with the Berlin Criminal Police is to look into the enigmatic death of one of Germany’s influential officials. During the investigation it becomes clear that this assassination, as well as some others, was committed to conceal from the world, including the USA whose President Joseph Kennedy was to meet Hitler, the truth about the Holocaust. At the end of the novel March who has himself become a target of the Nazi persecution finds himself in Auschwitz which has been dismantled but its remains still testify to the horrible events.

The POD in the novel is 1943. In the novel, the Nazi army defeated the Russians and the Third Reich spread up to the Urals. The Germans learnt about England’s deciphering its secret documents and with the help of false signals managed to destroy the British trade fleet, to blockade the country thus forcing it into signing a peace treaty. Threatening the USA with an atom bomb the Germans made it do the same. Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II have to live in Canada. Oxford University is tinned into the SS Academy. Ideological upbringing of Germany’s young generation is provided through compulsory membership in the Hitler Youth. Its most loyal members have the right to choose the place of army service which is obligatory for every German. But there is a mounting discontent with the Nazi policy within the country. University students protest against army service, they want to listen to the Beatles, have a chance to read Gunter Grass, Graham Greene, George Orwell and Jerome Salinger. Discontented are also many war veterans. Xavier March who has learnt about his countrymen’s atrocities refuses to serve the System, too. He manages to pass some secret documents to the USA but when pursued by the Gestapo prefers to take his own life.

The description of Berlin in Harris’ novel coincides with the real projects of Albert Speer, the real architect who was commissioned by Hitler to make the German capital the best city in the world. The most impressive in Berlin’s landscape is the enormous Reichstag which is 1,000 feet high and has a standing capacity of 150,000 people.

Thus, drawing on real facts and imagination Robert Harris creates an alternative reality of the XX century world, which, fortunately, has never come true.

The three novels can be defined as historical distopias, yet they obviously differ by their authors’ manner of writing and intent. In “Milton in America” Ackroyd, who is known for his sophisticated manipulations with time in almost all his novels, poses the eternally controversial problem of the role of a personality in historical processes. Robert Harris’ ‘Fatherland’ was evidently written to satisfy the inexhaustible interest in WWII. The popularity of the novel, besides its intelligent and thrilling detective plot, can be, in our opinion, accounted for by the following two factors: firstly, by the secrecy which even now, more than half a century after the end of the war, still surrounds the activities of the Third Reich as well as the destinies of some of its officials. Secondly, the novel seems to give an answer to the question which anyone aware of the abomination of Nazism, asks or may ask one day “What would have become of me, my family, my country, if the war had had a different outcome?” Unlike Ackroyd and Harris, Kingsley Amis, in our opinion, did not have any serious intent in mind when writing his novel. His manifestly groundless invective against the Catholic Church seems nothing but an exercise in invention and satire aimed at amusing the reader by distorting well known facts and dates. It is only natural that “The Alteration” does not rank among the writer’s best works.

It is obvious that besides entertaining plots good alternate history novels may contain serious ideas and stimulate their readers for thinking about the past, present and future of mankind.