Micro-(h)istorical narratives by Claude Duneton and Jean Echenoz – The purpose of this article is a comparative study of two recent French novels, Le Monument. Roman vrai by Claude Duneton (2004) and 1914 by Jean Echenoz (2012), which, in spite of formal and ideological differences, approach the theme of the Great War in a way similar to micro-historical frameworks. Like historians representing this field of historiography, both writers depict the four years of the First World War by focusing on a small community and a geographical space limited to a small location on the home-front. Referring to the distinction between roman de l’historien (the historian’s novel) and roman du témoin (the witness’s novel) proposed by Emmanuel Bouju, the author of the article analyses the strategies used by the novelists to create an indirect witness’s point-of-view, juxtaposed with the perspective of the contemporary recipient of the events that happened a hundred years ago.

The communicative turn in historiography has extended source criticism within historical studies by examining sources as products of human action. This article presents some source critical considerations regarding travel reports as documents of their time, and reviews their narrative perspective taking point of departure in theoretical approaches from literary studies. The overriding question here is how and to what extent the supposed and simultaneously strenuous objectivity of the historical sources is provided in three selected international travel reports written by travellers, observers and intellectuals, who visited Poland during World War I.