Hull Thesis By

BRITISH THESIS SERVICE DX218796 Awarding Body : Hull Thesis By : O'BRIEN Catherine Mary Thesis Title : WOMEN'S FICTIONAL RESPONSES TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED WORKS BY FRENCH AND GERMAN WRITERS We have assigned this thesis the number given at the top of this sheet. THE BRITISH LIBRARY DOCUMENT SUPPLY CENTRE . DEPARTMENT. ................... DEGREE NAME-C.. ..... G-es ........ tv'. u. /, - THE UNIVERSITY O HULL Deposit of thesis in accordance with Senate Minute 131,1955/56, 141,1970/1 and 343,1988/89 C- M I l) R`ý hereby give m consent that a copy of my thesis g. Dc, -1D -__ ýV\, If accepted for the degree of .. V in the University of Hull and thereafter deposited in the University Library shall be available for consultation, interlihrar Ioan and photoco ying at the discretion of the University Librarian Signalure/__'' L If, by reason of special circumstances, the author wishes to withhold for a period of not more than five years from the date of the degree being awarded the consent required by Senate, and if for similar reasons lie or she does not wish details of the thesis to be included in the University Library's catalogues or forwarded to any indexing or abstracting organisation, he or she should complete and sign sections (1) and (2) below, as appropriate (1) 1 wish access to my thesis to be withheld until for the following reason Signature (2) I further wish that full details of the title and subject of my thesis are not to be included in the University Library's catalogues or forwarded to any indexing or abstracting organisation until for the following reason Signature IN TIIC EVENT"OF'I'l1IS FORM NUT BEING RETURNED TO TIIC POSTGRADUATE OFFICE WITH THE THESIS, IT WILL BE ASSUMED THAT TILE AUTHOR CONSENTS TO IIIC THESIS BEING MADE AVAILABLE, FULLY CATALOGUED AND DETAILS NOTED TO ANY APPROPRIATE INDEXING OR ABSTRACTING ORGANISATIONS THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL Women's Fictional Responsesto the First World War A comparativestudy of selectedworks by French and German writers being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by CatherineMary O'Brien B. A. September1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS Paize Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations iii INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE Chapter One Historical Perspectives 20 Chapter Two Texts and Contexts 60 PART TWO ChapterThree Hierarchical Oppositions 108 Chapter Four Re-drawing the Lines 155 Chapter Five Female Voices 202 CONCLUSION 255 Select Bibliography 267 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to expressmy deepestthanks to my two supervisors, Professor Tony Williams of the Department of French and Dr. Tony McCobb of the Department of German at Hull University. Despite the many constraints upon their time, they have continued to offer help, valuable advice and constructive criticism over a long gestation period. Without their continued support (above and beyond the call of duty) and good humour, this thesis would never have been submitted. I should also like to acknowledge the help of Dr. Paul Kingston, who supervised the initial stages of this thesis, before he moved on to 'better things'. It would not have been possible for me to begin this research without the financial assistanceof the British Academy. I am grateful for both the Major State Studentship and for additional funding which enabled me to make two vital researchtrips abroad during the course of my studies. My appreciation must also go to my colleaguesin the School of Languages at Kingston University. Their constant encouragementand practical assistance, especially in covering my Admissions duties during the summer of 1992, have enabled me to continue with this project. I should like, in particular, to thank Dr. Wendy Scott, Head of the School of Languages,who stimulates staff development within the School in the face of mounting pressure; and Professor Keith Reader, who servesas a mentor to younger colleaguesand inspires by both word and deed. The groundwork for this thesis has taken me to a number of libraries in both France and Germany and introduced me to many specialists, particularly in the field of Women's Studies. Although I am grateful for all the advice I have received during my travels, I feel the need to single out the librarians at the Bibliotheque Marguerite Durand in Paris for their assistance, enthusiasm and ii expertise; and the staff of the Archiv der deutschenFrauenbewegung in Kassel for the very useful advice they gave me in the early stagesof this research. Finally, there are a number of people to whom I owe a very particular and personal debt of gratitude: to Janet Hurst, for the friendship and moral support she continues to give me; to Victoria Korzeniowska, who underwent a similar ordeal but had enough optimism left to cheer me up; to Tom Ennis, who came to know me as a person in the traumatic stagesof 'finishing the thesis', and without whose patience, time, care, senseof humour and love this thesis would never have been 'finished' (although I might have been in a sorry state myself); and last, but certainly not least, to my parents, who have never failed to back me (both financially and emotionally) throughout all my endeavours and whose love and support are a constant source of strength. I should like to dedicate this work to Mum, Dad and Tom, with all my love and thanks. 111 ABBREVIATIONS List of Abbreviations used for the selected titles: DO = Die Opferschaleby Ida Boy-Ed DP = Dans le Puits ou la vie it ferieure 1915-1917 by Rachilde DrM = Das rote Meer by Clara Viebig GC = L'Histoire de Gotton Connixloo by Camille Mayran K= Der Kriegsfreiwillige by Helene von Mühlau KW = Kriegsbriefe der Familie Wimmel by Margarete Böhme LHL = Les Heures longues by Colette LO = L'Oubliee by Camille Mayran PIM il by JeanneLandre = ... puis mourut RC = Un Roman civil en 1914 by Lucie Delarue-Mardrus TdH = Töchter der Hekuba by Clara Viebig UH = Die unsereHoffnung sind by Helene Christaller VA = La Peillee des armes by Marcelle Tinayre INTRODUCTION 2 Soldiers' names engraved upon the rolls of honour, embellishing memorials throughout once belligerent nations, support the idea that the First World War was an intrinsically male ordeal; political and military tomes have done little to belie this viewpoint, revealing strategies born of male initiative; and surveys of war literature have traditionally served as bastions of male authorship, revering the works of Owen, Rosenberg, Barbusse, Dorgeles, Zweig, Remarque et al. The novels and poems of 1914-18 which have entered the First World War literary canon belong to a male-dominated tradition in which soldiers' perspectives have held the monopoly. Amongst the millions of men who joined the army were thousands of established and potential writers whose testaments offered first-hand knowledge of front-line battle and created 'a link... between war and literature unknown before. " Their written testimonies, scribbled in the trenches or composed in the aftermath of introspection and retrospection, offer visions of the glory and horror of the battlefield which have become the literary patrimony of the Great War. The depiction of the psychological and emotional dimensions of women's First World War experience has played a lesser - often a non-existent - role in literary studies in the belief that 'the primary loss'in war literature is inevitably death; mourning is secondary'.' The widows, grieving mothers and broken- hearted fiancees are excluded from the supreme sacrifice of death itself, endowing their personal tragedy with inferior status. Yet, without the women's frame of reference, an analysis of the legacy of 3 war remains incomplete, leading to the positing of universal statements in the name of only half the population. It is a factor that has been noted by historians and sociologists, who have begun to redress the imbalance by turning issues of gender and the-First World War into a focal point as they have charted the wartime segregation of the sexes and the void behind the lines which women came to fill. Whether 1914-1918 was a watershed in the history of women's liberation, or primarily an occasion for female understudies to revel in a brief moment of glory before returning to the wings, has since been the preoccupation of many historical studies. Literary critics have, however, lagged behind their historical contemporaries in this field, often retaining androcentric criteria in the selection of texts for analysis and reassessment. This feature is not peculiar to war literature. The 'phenomenon of the transience of female literary fame'3 has meant that 'each generation of women has found itself, in a sense, without a history, forced to rediscover the past anew, forging again and again the consciousness of their sex. '4 The [predominantly male] academics who have established the literary canon have neglected to incorporate the work of many women writers, often failing to acknowledge the omission, as if the outcome were the result of obliviousness, rather than of a decision taken on intellectual grounds. It is not simply that women are dismissed as 'inferior writers'. In his analysis of French literature of the First World War era John Cruickshank advocates the study of authors with 'limited talents', in order to 'catch something of the general atmosphere and flavour of the period', but narrows that range to incorporate only the male sex. 'Flawed immediacy can be more valuable testimony than flawless but detached reconstruction', but only male writers are excused their faults. -' 4 It was during the 1980s that a number of Anglo-American academics broke the customary mould by focusing attention on women's contribution to war literature, either as fictional figures within war novels by celebrated male authors, or as the producers of textual meaning.

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