DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2022-06-04-109-114

Prilutsky V.V., Yanenko E.M.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861–1865) IN THE WORKS OF A. BIERCE:
HISTORICAL REALITIES AND FICTION

The article examines the reflection of the Civil War in the United States in the work of the American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). The analysis of the historical realities and artistic fiction contained in it is carried out. The American Civil War is a key, perhaps even the main event in American history. The events of the Civil War are reflected in the pages of historical research, in diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, periodicals, documents of the Union and Confederate armies and other sources. It is shown that their reflection not only in documents, but also in fiction, in which the epoch found its refraction, was of great importance for understanding the perception of historical events of the XIXth century by contemporaries. But such sources of information about the war, as the artistic works of contemporaries, are of a specific nature, since they reflect not only the truth, but also literary fiction. Of particular importance is the work of a direct witness to the events of wartime, a participant in the Civil War, the writer-northerner A. Bierce. His works reflect real events and images of northerners and Southerners – soldiers, officers, generals and civilians. A series of short stories by A. Bierce, despite subjective assessments, helps to better understand and feel the psychology of a serviceman during the bloody clash of the northern and southern states and to comprehend the phenomenon of war as a whole.

Keywords: The Civil War in the USA, the conflict between the North and the South of the USA, Northerners and Southerners in the XIXth century in America, Ambrose Bierce, reflection of historical events in fiction.

Academician I.G. Petrovskii Bryansk State University (Russia)

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