Nation in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Eastwood's Flags of Our Father

In his article "Nation in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Eastwood's Flags of Our Father" Brent M. Smith-Casanueva explores the commonalities between the antiwar narratives of Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) and Clint Eastwood's film Flags of our Fathers (2006). Taking the position that narration of nation must be considered a site of hegemonic struggle, Smith-Casanueva argues that both texts employ a similar deconstructive logic to subvert the nationalist discourses and dominant war narratives of their respective nations and the national myths constructed through these narratives. In particular, both All Quiet on the Western Front and Flags of our Fathers destabilize narration of nation through challenging dominant war narratives' claim to a universality of national interests and the essentializing character of national myth, as well as through disrupting the linear temporality of narration of nation.