Language, Individual & Society, Volume 18, 2024

Abstract: The objective of the article is to provide an overview of the coverage of the 20th century world wars in the Latvian 20th century war novel, thus raising global questions through local issues. Although the theme of war makes itself herd in Latvian literature with periodic regularity and takes a prominent place in both the general picture of the Latvian novel-writing and the creative biographies of individual authors, broader research on the Latvian war novel has not yet been undertaken. As a result, the article is an innovative study, first at the national level, while holding a significant potential for broader science communication. The Latvian war novel of the 20th century emerges as a multi-vocal and conflicting narrative of the past encouraging a dialogue between people and nations with different historical and life experiences. Both World War I and World War II novels have a distinctly multi-national set of characters; however, at the heart of the narrative there is the image of a Latvian soldier – a Latvian Rifleman or a Latvian Legionnaire. High-ranking political and military figures are involved in the novels’ plot implicitly, appearing mainly in dialogues and reflections by characters, but their mention carries a very strong message. Most of the texts examined correspond to the type of anti-war novel, except those created in the spirit of national romanticism or revolutionary romanticism, imparting to them a heroic pathos. By combining the two main principles of classification – by subject and by the genre poetics – the Latvian war novel uses different genre codes – the biographical novel, the coming-of-age novel, the existential novel, the family novel, the thriller, and the love story novel.