Invasion literature (or the
invasion novel) was a historical
literary genreA literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children's. They also must not be confused...
most notable between 1871 and the
First World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
(1914). The genre first became recognizable starting in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
in 1871 with
The Battle of DorkingThe Battle of Dorking is a 1871 novel of the genre which has been termed Invasion literature. It was written by George Tomkyns Chesney and has been seen as an influence on H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds...
, a fictional account of an invasion of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. This short story was so popular it started a literary craze for tales that aroused imaginations and anxieties about hypothetical
invasionAn invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
s by foreign powers, and by 1914 the genre had amassed a corpus of over 400 books, many best-sellers, and a world-wide audience. The genre was influential in Britain in shaping politics, national policies and popular perceptions in the years leading up to the First World War, and remains a part of popular culture to this day. Several of the books were written by or ghostwritten for military officers and experts of the day who would have the nation saved if it had or would adopt the particular tactic they favoured.
In Britain
The Battle of Dorking (1871) by
George Tomkyns ChesneySir George Tomkyns Chesney, KCB, CSI, CIE , British Army general, brother of Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney, was born at Tiverton, Devon, on April 30 1830.-Biography:...
first appeared in
Blackwood's MagazineBlackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
, a respected Victorian political journal read by important British politicians. The
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
describes the invasion of England by an unnamed enemy (who happen to speak
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
), in which the narrator and 1,000 citizens defend the small English town of
DorkingDorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
, with no supplies or news of outside events. The story then moves forward in time 50 years and England is still devastated.
The author, like many of his countrymen at the time, was alarmed by
PrussiaThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
's
successful invasion of FranceThe Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between France and Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria...
in 1870, defeating Europe's largest army in only two months.
The Battle of Dorking was initially meant to shock readers into becoming more aware of the possible dangers of a foreign threat, but unwittingly created a new literary genre appealing to popular anxieties. The story was an immediate success, with one reviewer saying "We do not know that we ever saw anything better in any magazine... it describes exactly what we all feel." It was so popular that the magazine was re-printed six times, a new pamphlet version was created, dozens of spoofs were created, and it was for sale throughout the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
. One running joke in England at the time was an injury, such as a bruise or scrape, being attributed to a wound received at the battle of Dorking.
Between the publication of
The Battle of Dorking in 1871 and the start of
First World WarWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
in 1914 there were hundreds of authors writing invasion literature, often topping the best seller lists in Germany,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, England and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. During the period it is estimated over 400 invasion works were published. Probably the best known work was
H. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary....
's
The War of the WorldsThe War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:-Literature:...
(1898), a faithful reproduction of
The Battle of Dorking but with a
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
theme.
DraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel,...
(1897) also tapped into English fears of foreign forces arriving unopposed on its shores, although between 1870 and 1903 the majority of these works assumed that the enemy would be France, rather than Germany. This changed with the publication of
Erskine ChildersErskine Childers may refer to:* Robert Erskine Childers , author and Irish nationalist, who served as secretary-general of the Irish delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921...
's 1903 novel
The Riddle of the SandsThe Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. It is an early example of the espionage novel, with a strong underlying theme of militarism....
. Often called the first modern spy novel, two men on a sailing holiday thwart a German invasion of England when they discover a secret fleet of invasion barges assembling on the German coast. Of these hundreds of authors, few are in print now.
SakiHector Hugh Munro , better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn...
is one of the exceptions, although his 1913 novel
When William CameWhen William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns is a novel written by British author Saki and published in 1913. It was set several years in what was then the future, after a war between Germany and Great Britain, which Germany won...
(subtitled "A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns"), is more jingoistic than literary.
William Le QueuxWilliam Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
was the most prolific author of the genre; his first novel was
The Great War in England in 1897The Great War in England in 1897 was written by William Le Queux and published by Tower Publishing Co., London in 1894. An important book in the invasion literature genre, it depicts the invasion of Britain by the French with their Cossack allies, with the invading forces penetrating into London -...
(1894) and he went on to publish from one to twelve novels a year until his death in 1927. His work was regularly serialised in newspapers, particularly the
Daily MailThe Daily Mail is a British daily tabloid newspaper. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the paper were launched in...
, and attracted many readers. It is believed
Ian FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author and journalist. Fleming is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories...
's
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
character was inspired by Le Queux's agent "Duckworth Drew". In some ways "The Great War" can be considered an antithesis to "The Battle of Dorking" - with the one ending for Britain in sombre and irrevocable defeat and decline, while in the other the invasion of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
is pushed back in the last moment (with the help of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, portrayed as a staunch ally against
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
), with enormous territorial aggrandizement (Britain gets
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and Russian
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
; "Britannia" becomes "Empress of the World").
Le Queux's most popular invasion novel was
The Invasion of 1910The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...
(1906) which was translated into twenty-seven languages selling more than a million copies world-wide. Le Queux and his publisher changed the ending depending on the language, so in the German print edition the fatherland wins, while in the English edition the Germans lose. Le Queux was said to be the
Queen Alexandra'sAlexandra of Denmark was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India from 1901 to 1910 as the consort of Edward VII....
favorite author.
P. G. WodehouseSir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English writer whose body of work includes novels, collections of short stories, and musical theatre. Wodehouse enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his prolific writings continue to be widely read...
parodied the genre in
The Swoop!, in which England is simultaneously invaded by nine different armies.
In Asia
Invasion literature had its impact also in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, at the time undergoing a fast process of
modernizationModernization is a concept used in sociology and politics. It is the view that a standard, teleological evolutionary pattern, as described in the social evolutionism theories, exists as a template for all nations and peoples...
.
Shunrō Oshikawa, was a Japanese author, journalist and editor, and is best known as a pioneer of science fiction.-Education and Early Career:While studying law at Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō at the turn of the century, Oshikawa published Kaitō Bōken Kidan: Kaitei Gunkan , the story of an armoured, ram-armed submarine in...
, a pioneer of Japanese
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
and adventure stories (genres unknown in Japan until a few years earlier), published at the turn of the century the best-seller
Kaitō Bōken Kidan: Kaitei Gunkan ("Undersea Battleship"): the story of an armoured,
ramIn warfare, ramming is a technique that was used in air, sea and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram's momentum...
-armed
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
involved in a
future historyA future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct as a common background for fiction...
of war between Japan and Russia. The novel reflected the imperialist ambitions of Japan at the time, and foreshadowed the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
that followed a few years later, in 1904. When the actual war with Russia broke out, Oshikawa covered it as a journalist while also continuing to publish further volumes of fiction depicting Japanese imperial exploits set in the Pacific and
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
- which also proved an enormous success with the Japanese public. In a later career as a magazine editor, he also encouraged the writing of more fiction in the same vein by other Japanese authors.
Colonial
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
's earliest work of invasion literature is believed to have been the 1897
The Back DoorThe Back Door was an anonymous work of invasion literature serialised in Hong Kong newspaper The China Mail from 30 September through 8 October 1897...
. Published in serial form in a local newspaper, it described a fictional French and Russian naval landing at
Hong Kong IslandHong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
's
Deep Water BayDeep Water Bay is a bay on the southern shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The bay is surrounded by Shouson Hill, Brick Hill, Middle Island and Violet Hill. Beneath the hill of Violet Hill is a beach, Deep Water Bay Beach...
; the story was intended to criticise the lack of
BritishThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
funding for
the defence of Hong KongBritish Forces Overseas Hong Kong consisted of the elements of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Much of the British military left Hong Kong prior to the handover in 1997. The present article focuses mainly on the British garrison in Hong Kong in the post Second World War era...
, and it is speculated that members of the
Imperial Japanese ArmyThe Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
may have read the book in preparation for the 1941
Battle of Hong KongThe Battle of Hong Kong took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II. It began on 8 December 1941 and ended on Christmas Day with Hong Kong, then a Crown colony, surrendering to Empire of Japan.-Background:...
.
In the USA
One of the earliest stories to appear in print in the USA was “The Stricken Nation” by Hugh Grattan Donnely published in 1890 in New York. It tells of a successful British invasion of the USA.
The move of American public opinion towards participation in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
was reflected in
Uncle Sam's Boys at The Invasion of the United States by
H. Irving HancockHarrie Irving Hancock was an American chemist and writer, mainly remembered as an author of children's literature and juveniles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and as having written a fictional depiction of a German invasion of the USA....
. This four-book series, published by the
Henry Altemus CompanyThe Henry Altemus Company was a publishing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. for almost a century, from 1842 to 1936. The firm started as a bookbindery. In 1863 Altemus was awarded a patent for a particular type of binding for photographic albums. These albums were huge sellers...
in 1916, depicts a German invasion of the US in 1920-21, with the German surface navy showing a fictional strength at odds with its proven showing in the actual war (Although it scored a tactical victory in 1916 at the
Battle of JutlandThe Battle of Jutland ; informally known by participants as Der Tag , was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only full-scale clash of battleships in that war...
, it found itself unable to venture into the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
for the remainder of the war). The plot seems to transfer the main story line of Le Queux's
The Great War (with which the writer may have been familiar) to an American theatre: the Germans launch a surprise attack, capture
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
despite heroic resistance by "Uncle Sam's boys", overrun all of
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
and
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and reach as far as Pittsburgh - but at last are gloriously crushed by fresh American forces (see).
Political impact
Stories of a planned German invasion rose to increasing political prominence from 1906. Taking their inspiration from the stories of Le Queux and Childers, hundreds of ordinary citizens began to suspect foreigners of espionage. This trend was accentuated by Le Queux, who collected 'sightings' brought to his attention by readers and raised them through his association with the Daily Mail. Subsequent research has since shown that no significant German espionage network existed in Britain at this time. Claims about the scale of German invasion preparations grew increasingly ambitious. The number of German spies was put at between 60,000 and 300,000 (in spite of the total German community in Britain being no more than 44,000 people). It was alleged that thousands of rifles were being stockpiled by German spies in order to arm saboteurs at the outbreak of war.
Calls for government action grew ever more intense, and in 1909 it was given as the reason for the secret foundation of the Secret Service Bureau, the forerunner of
MI5The Security Service commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff...
and MI6. Historians today debate whether this was in fact the real reason, but in any case the concerns raised in invasion literature came to define the early duties of the Bureau's Home Section.
Vernon KellMajor-General Sir Vernon George Waldegrave Kell, KCMG was the founder and first Director General of the British Security Service, otherwise known as MI5....
, the section head, remained obsessed with the location of these saboteurs, focusing his operational plans both before and during the war on defeating the saboteurs imagined by Le Queux.
Invasion literature was not without detractors; policy experts in the years preceding the First World War said invasion literature risked inciting war between England and Germany and France. Critics such as
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
Henry Campbell-BannermanSir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, GCB was a British Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister from 5 December 1905 until resigning due to ill health on 3 April 1908...
denounced Le Queux's
The Invasion of 1910The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...
as "calculated to inflame public opinion abroad and alarm the more ignorant public at home." Journalist
Charles LoweCharles Lowe was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire from 1909 to 1912.Lowe was born in Whitwell, Derbyshire. He made his cricket debut for Derbyshire in 1909 against a team of touring Australians. In 1910 he made his first County Championship appearance against Leicestershire...
wrote in 1910: "Among all the causes contributing to the continuance of a state of bad blood between England and Germany perhaps the most potent is the baneful industry of those unscrupulous writers who are forever asserting that the Germans are only awaiting a fitting opportunity to attack us in our island home and burst us up."
Pre-"Dorking" invasion literature
The invasion literature genre became most notable with
The Battle of Dorking in the 1870s. However, already a century earlier, at France in the 1780s, there was a mini-boom of invasion stories appearing soon after the French first developed the hot-air balloon. Poems and plays, depicting armies of balloons headed to England, could be found in France and even America. However it was not until the Prussians first used advanced technologies such as breech-loading artillery and railroads to defeat the French in 1870 that the imagined fears of invasion by a technologically superior enemy became real.
Invasion Literature after WWI
The invasion genre has persisted to this day in popular culture because it continues to appeal to the anxieties of the moment, including terrorism, pandemics, and ecological and environmental catastrophe.
The "
First Red ScareIn American history, the First Red Scare took place in the period 1917–1920, and was marked by a widespread fear of anarchism, as well as the effects of radical political agitation in American society. Fueled by anarchist bombings and spurred on by Attorney General A...
" following
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
produced
Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
's
The Moon MenThe Moon Maid is an Edgar Rice Burroughs Lost World novel. It was written in three parts, Part 1 was begun in June 1922 under the title The Moon Maid, Part 2 was begun in 1919 under the title Under the Red Flag, later retitled The Moon Men, Part 3 was titled the The Red Hawk...
(1925), a depiction of Earth (and specifically, the United States) under the rule of cruel invaders from the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
. This book is known to have been originally written as "Under the Red Flag", an explicit anti-Communist novel, and when rejected by the publishers in that form it was successfully "recycled" by Burroughs as Science Fiction.
After the
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
fears of Communist invasion became even more pronounced in books like
Robert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called "the dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of the genre. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's...
's
The Puppet MastersThe Puppet Masters is a 1951 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space...
(1951) and films like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
A more explicit Soviet invasion and occupation is depicted in
Jerry SohlGerald Allan Sohl Sr. was a scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone , Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Star Trek and other shows...
's Point Ultimate (1955) - where the United States lies prostrate under cruel and degenerate Soviet occupiers, helped by "Commie" American collaborators - but a band of undaunted rebels manage the improbable feat of launching an extensive space program under the Soviets' noses, colonising
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
and using it as base of operations. Similar themes were continued in the 1980s with
Red DawnRed Dawn is a 1984 American war film directed and co-written by John Milius and written by Kevin Reynolds. The film is set in an alternate timeline during the mid-1980s, and deals with an invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union and its Central American allies. However, the onset of World...
(1984) and
AmerikaAmerika – suggesting a Russified name for the United States – is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC. It starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the...
(1987).
In 1971, when realization of losing the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
was sinking into the American consciousness, two books appeared almost simultaneously, both depicting a United States under Soviet occupation. In
Vandenberg by Oliver Lange - written, like "Dorking", as a cautionary tale - most Americans accept Soviet overlordship without much protest, the only resistance coming from a group of oddballs in a corner of
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
. In contrast, in
John BallJohn Dudley Ball , writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. He was introduced in the 1965 In the Heat of the Night where he solves a murder in a racist Southern small town...
's
The First TeamThe First Team is a 1971 thriller by John Ball. The book is set in a future history of a United States living under a brutal Soviet occupation, at a date which is not specified but seems to be the late 1970's, and can retroactively be considered a kind of alternate history.Ball is best known for...
- as in "The Great War" - a seemingly hopeless situation is retrieved by a band of courageous patriots with the book ending on a note of uplifting liberation.
John MiliusJohn Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960's, but was rejected due...
'
Red DawnRed Dawn is a 1984 American war film directed and co-written by John Milius and written by Kevin Reynolds. The film is set in an alternate timeline during the mid-1980s, and deals with an invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union and its Central American allies. However, the onset of World...
was a film of a Soviet invasion of the US.
The
Tomorrow seriesThe Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power...
of young adult novels by
John MarsdenJohn Marsden is a well known Australian writer.-Career:John Marsden has had an outstanding career as a young adults author, and thrives in the genre of action seen throughout every book he has written...
, first published in 1994, detail an invasion of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
by an unnamed country from the perspective of a band of teenage
guerillasGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
.
The
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
and
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
series
Saikanois a manga, anime, and OVA series by Shin Takahashi, creator of Iihito and Kimi no Kakera. Saikano was originally serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine....
features an invasion of
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
by unknown foreign forces.
Influences
A main theme in invasion literature is a fear of and fascination with technology. The invasions are made possible by a technological leap that gives the invader a supra-human advantage.
I.F. Clarke, a British literary scholar, is recognized as the primary expert on the genre.
Notable invasion literature
- The Battle of Dorking
The Battle of Dorking is a 1871 novel of the genre which has been termed Invasion literature. It was written by George Tomkyns Chesney and has been seen as an influence on H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds...
(1871), George Tomkyns ChesneySir George Tomkyns Chesney, KCB, CSI, CIE , British Army general, brother of Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney, was born at Tiverton, Devon, on April 30 1830.-Biography:...
- The Germ Growers (1892), Robert Potter
- The Great War in England in 1897
The Great War in England in 1897 was written by William Le Queux and published by Tower Publishing Co., London in 1894. An important book in the invasion literature genre, it depicts the invasion of Britain by the French with their Cossack allies, with the invading forces penetrating into London -...
(1894), William Le QueuxWilliam Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
- The Yellow Wave (1897), Kenneth Mackay
- The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:-Literature:...
(1898), H. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary....
- The Riddle of the Sands
The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. It is an early example of the espionage novel, with a strong underlying theme of militarism....
(1903), Erskine ChildersErskine Childers may refer to:* Robert Erskine Childers , author and Irish nationalist, who served as secretary-general of the Irish delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921...
- The Invasion of 1910
The Invasion of 1910 is a 1906 novel written mainly by William Le Queux . It is one of the more famous examples of Invasion literature and is an example of pre-World War I Germanophobia, as it preached the need to prepare for war with Germany.-Background:The novel was originally commissioned by...
(1906), William Le QueuxWilliam Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
- The Australian Crisis (1907), by C. H. Kirmess
- Spies of the Kaiser (1909), William Le Queux
William Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
- When William Came
When William Came: A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns is a novel written by British author Saki and published in 1913. It was set several years in what was then the future, after a war between Germany and Great Britain, which Germany won...
(1913), SakiHector Hugh Munro , better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn...
Post-World War I
- The Survivalist
The Survivalist is the generic title of Jerry Ahern's long-lived series of pulp novels. While he was pre-dated by six years by the novel The Survivalist by Giles Tippette Ahern was the first novelist to create a series of novels with an iconic central character with distinctive survivalist...
series (1981-93), Jerry AhernJerry Ahern is a science fiction author best known for his post apocalyptic survivalist series The Survivalist. The books in this series are heavy with descriptions of the weapons the protagonists use to survive and prosecute a seemingly never-ending war amongst the remnants of the superpowers...
- Tomorrow series
The Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power...
(1993), John MarsdenJohn Marsden may refer to:* John Marsden , Australian solicitor* John Marsden , English rower, intelligence office and teacher* John Marsden , Australian author of books for children and young adults...
- The Ashes
Ashes may refer to:* The Ashes, the Test cricket series between England and Australia* The Ashes , the rugby league Test series between Great Britain and Australia...
series (1983-2003), William W. JohnstoneWilliam Wallace Johnstone was a prolific American author, mostly of western, Horror and survivalist novels.- Biography :...
See also
- Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which an extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to exterminate and replace human life , enslave it under a colonial system , to harvest humans for food , or sometimes to destroy the earth altogether .The...
- Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a subgenre of literary fiction, though it often uses the tropes of science fiction and historical fiction that is set in a world in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It is sometimes abbreviated AH. Another...
- The British Empire in Fiction
The British Empire has often been portrayed in fiction. Originally such works described the Empire because it was a contemporary part of life; nowadays fictional references are also frequently made in a steampunk context.-Historical events:...
- England Invaded
England Invaded, a collection of imaginative fiction, including invasion literature, from the Victorian and Edwardian periods edited by Michael Moorcock. Originally published in hardback by W.H...
(1977), a collection of six popular Invasion Literature stories republished in 1977.
- World War III in popular culture
World War III is a common theme in popular culture. Since the 1940s, countless books, films, and television programmes have used the theme of nuclear weapons and a third global war. The presence of the Soviet Union as an international rival armed with nuclear weapons created a persistent fear in...
- Before Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914
Before Armageddon: An Anthology of Victorian and Edwardian Imaginative Fiction Published Before 1914 is a collection of stories, including invasion literature, and one article, all edited by Michael Moorcock. Originally published in hardback by W.H...
(1975)
- Book of Invasions
- Tunnel in the Sky#Chinese conquest of Australia
- Not This August
Not This August, also known as Christmas Eve, is a science fiction novel by C.M. Kornbluth. It was originally published in 1955 by Doubleday. A revised edition with a new foreword and afterword by Frederik Pohl was published in 1981 by Tor Books, ISBN 0-523-48518-2...
- Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)
Invasion U.S.A. is a 1952 motion picture set during the Cold War and portraying the invasion of the United States by an unnamed Communist enemy meant to be taken as the Soviet Union.-Plot:The film begins in a New York City bar, where the brooding, mysterious forecaster Mr...
- Invasion U.S.A. (1985 film)
Invasion U.S.A. is a 1985 action film made by Cannon Films and starring Chuck Norris. It was directed by Joseph Zito. Both Chuck Norris and his brother Aaron Norris were involved in the writing. It was made in Fort Pierce, Florida. Miami landmarks---such as Dadeland Mall and Miracle Mile---can also...
External links
- I.F. Clarke, 1997. "Future War Fiction". An award-winning essay.
- I.F. Clarke, 1997. "Before and After The Battle of Dorking".
- George Tomkyns Chesney
Sir George Tomkyns Chesney, KCB, CSI, CIE , British Army general, brother of Colonel Charles Cornwallis Chesney, was born at Tiverton, Devon, on April 30 1830.-Biography:...
(1871). The Battle of Dorking. London, G. Richards ltd., 1914, introduction by G. H. Powell. From Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive of the World Wide Web....
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