Surkova Aleksandra Sergeevna – postgraduate student at the Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Junior Researcher at the Institute for World Literature RAS; ORCID: 0009-0002-5062-261X
The article analyzes the concepts of “fiction” and “documentary” as applied to American prose written during the Second World War. John Hersey’s novel The Bell for Adano, written on the impressions of the author, who worked as a war correspondent, from the liberation operation of the US Navy in Italy, is chosen as an outstanding example of a work combining both these concepts. The novel was based on the plot of an article published a year earlier in Life magazine, AMGOT at Work. In the novel, Hersey assured readers of the infallibility and integrity of the U.S. Army, but also noticed its imperfections; with documentary accuracy reproduced real events and everyday details, while enticing an interesting plot and vivid memorable images. The author was able to place a fictional story in a documentary chronotope, without overdoing the propaganda pathos, but also without failing to present the American army in a predominantly favorable light, which in wartime conditions successfully worked to raise the patriotic spirit of the United States.
John Hersey; World War II; fiction; documentary; war journalism