The image of the American remote places in alternate history fiction about the Second World War and its consequences

Abstract

Alternate history fiction traditionally attracts the attention of researchers and critics in the context of creating terminological interpretations and other naming options, considering the origins of the phenomenon and the process of formation of this subgenre of science fiction in world literature, identifying typologies and classifications, studying the commonality and differences in the construction of plots about specific eras in one and several literatures, as well as exploring the connection between alternate history and other literary genres. However, studying the specifics of localization of the narrative space of genre works seems to be an equally significant task for studying the characteristics of the genre. This article is devoted to the consideration of the image of the American remote places in alternate history works about the Second World War and its consequences. For analysis in the context of the given problems, two American literary texts created at different stages of the development of the genre were selected: a story “Two Dooms” by C.M. Kornbluth, which was published in 1958, and D. Quinn’s novel “After Dachau”, which was published in 2001. Particular attention in the article is paid to providing evidence-based examples of the significance of the remote places as a location actively involved in the construction of an alternate history narrative in both works under study.