DOCSLIB.ORG

The History/Literature Problem in First World War Studies Nicholas Milne-Walasek Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The History/Literature Problem in First World War Studies Nicholas Milne-Walasek Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate The History/Literature Problem in First World War Studies Nicholas Milne-Walasek Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree in English Literature Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Nicholas Milne-Walasek, Ottawa, Canada, 2016 ii ABSTRACT In a cultural context, the First World War has come to occupy an unusual existential point half- way between history and art. Modris Eksteins has described it as being “more a matter of art than of history;” Samuel Hynes calls it “a gap in history;” Paul Fussell has exclaimed “Oh what a literary war!” and placed it outside of the bounds of conventional history. The primary artistic mode through which the war continues to be encountered and remembered is that of literature—and yet the war is also a fact of history, an event, a happening. Because of this complex and often confounding mixture of history and literature, the joint roles of historiography and literary scholarship in understanding both the war and the literature it occasioned demand to be acknowledged. Novels, poems, and memoirs may be understood as engagements with and accounts of history as much as they may be understood as literary artifacts; the war and its culture have in turn generated an idiosyncratic poetics. It has conventionally been argued that the dawn of the war's modern literary scholarship and historiography can be traced back to the late 1960s and early 1970s—a period which the cultural historian Jay Winter has described as the “Vietnam Generation” of scholarship. This period was marked by an emphatic turn away from the records of cultural elites and towards an oral history preserved and delivered by those who fought the war “on the ground,” so to speak. Adrian Gregory has affirmed this period's status as the originating point for the war's modern historiography, while James Campbell similarly has placed the origins of the war's literary scholarship around the same time. I argue instead that this “turn” to the oral and the subaltern is in fact somewhat overstated, and that the fully recognizable origins of what we would consider a “modern” approach to the war can be found being developed both during the war and in its aftermath. Authors writing on the home front developed an effective language of “war writing” that then inspired the reaction of the “War Books Boom” of 1922-1939, and this boom in turn provided the tropes and concerns that have so animated modern scholarship. Through it all, from 1914 to the current era, there has been a consistent recognition of both the literariness of the war's history and the historiographical quality of its literature; this has helped shape an unbroken line of scholarship—and of literary production—from the war's earliest days to the present day. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION I. Preamble .................................................................................................................................. 1 II. “Oh What a Literary War!” .................................................................................................... 11 III. Outline .................................................................................................................................. 34 CHAPTER 1: Cultural and Ideological Backgrounds of the First World War, 1914-1922 I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 44 II. A Future Nightmare, 1870-1914 ........................................................................................... 46 III: Words for Waging War......................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 2: Writing the War: Historiography, Literary Scholarship, and Literatureof the First World War, 1914-1922 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 80 I. Historiography, 1914-1922..................................................................................................... 82 II. Literary Scholarship, 1914-1922 ............................................................................................ 98 III. War Stories: The Literary Output of 1914-1922 ................................................................ 107 CHAPTER 3: The War Books Boom in Thought and Practice, 1922-1939 I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 129 II. A Culture of Regret .............................................................................................................. 132 III. Words for Revision: Writing and Re-Writing, 1922-1939 .................................................. 148 CHAPTER 4: Re-Reading and Re-Writing the War: Historiography, Literary Scholarship, and Literature of the First World War, 1922-1939 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 169 I. History and Historiography after the War ........................................................................... 173 II. War Books Boom and Bust—Literary Scholarship and Critique ......................................... 176 III. Writing Back—Literature .................................................................................................... 190 CHAPTER 5: The Vietnam Generation and the Transition to Modern Scholarship I. The “Vietnam Generation” and the Development of Oral/Experiential History ................. 211 iv II. Paul Fussell and the Birth of “Modern Memory" ................................................................ 224 III. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 232 WORKS CITED .............................................................................................................................. 251 1 INTRODUCTION I. Preamble The year 2012 saw two deaths that each, in different ways, constituted a significant moment in the ongoing debate over how we are best to approach the cultural history of the First World War.1 The first, of Florence Green on 4 February 2012, marked the final severing of the line of living memory between the experience of the war itself and those of us studying it today. Green served as an officers’ mess steward with the RAF from September through November of 1918, making her the last living “veteran” of the war to have been alive in any country.2 With this last living link to the war having passed away, the responsibility of preserving the war’s memory now falls entirely upon those who were not alive to experience it themselves, and a great deal of care must consequently be taken. The war had come to haunt that generation of young men and women born in its aftermath, many of whom felt they had missed out on “the war that was called Great” (Scannell 39), and who could only hear it spoken of—or not spoken of—without ever having had a chance to participate in it themselves. It would be difficult now to imagine anyone regretting having missed out on the trenches, but for 1 A third and similarly meaningful 2012 death for First World War studies was that of Dominic Hibberd (b. 1941), the English scholar and critic best known for his work on the poets Wilfred Owen and Harold Monro. He was also one of the more prolific anthologizers of First World War poetry, often working alongside the less-prolific John Onions. While volumes like Poetry of the First World War (1983), Poetry of the Great War (1986) and The Winter of the World: Poems of the First World War (2007) have been important contributions to the field of First World War poetry, they have been more notable as inheritors of a pre-existing tradition than as creators of a new one. 2 Canada’s last known living veteran, John Babcock, had served with the Young Soldiers’ Battalion without ever having seen combat. He did not consider himself a “veteran” of the war in any meaningful sense, but continued to be hailed as one up until his death in 2010. 2 young people like Christopher Isherwood, George Orwell or Norman Mailer it seemed that some great test of manliness and courage had come—and gone, themselves never to be given the opportunity to try their strength in its cause. Isherwood refers to this as a subconscious feeling of shame; Mailer speaks of a morbid fascination with the war so powerful that it overrode even his own willingness to admit that he had it (Fussell 110). For those who fought in the war themselves, the situation was sometimes equally fraught; Guy Chapman, in A Kind of Survivor (1975), declares firmly that “to the years between 1914 and 1918 I owe everything of lasting value in my make-up” (280)—a claim on an individual level that has been echoed by others on a cultural one, as with Paul Fussell's declaration that the First World War is the “all- encompassing, all-pervading . essential condition of consciousness in the twentieth century” (GW 321), or Wade Davis' that “everything you know of your life, every sense you have of being modern,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in World War I: from Inception To
    THE PORTUGUESE EXPEDITIONARY CORPS IN WORLD WAR I: FROM INCEPTION TO COMBAT DESTRUCTION, 1914-1918 Jesse Pyles, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2012 APPROVED: Geoffrey Wawro, Major Professor Robert Citino, Committee Member Walter Roberts, Committee Member Richard McCaslin, Chair of the Department of History James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Pyles, Jesse, The Portuguese Expeditionary Corps in World War I: From Inception to Destruction, 1914-1918. Master of Arts (History), May 2012, 130 pp., references, 86. The Portuguese Expeditionary Force fought in the trenches of northern France from April 1917 to April 1918. On 9 April 1918 the sledgehammer blow of Operation Georgette fell upon the exhausted Portuguese troops. British accounts of the Portuguese Corps’ participation in combat on the Western Front are terse. Many are dismissive. In fact, Portuguese units experienced heavy combat and successfully held their ground against all attacks. Regarding Georgette, the standard British narrative holds that most of the Portuguese soldiers threw their weapons aside and ran. The account is incontrovertibly false. Most of the Portuguese combat troops held their ground against the German assault. This thesis details the history of the Portuguese Expeditionary Force. Copyright 2012 by Jesse Pyles ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The love of my life, my wife Izabella, encouraged me to pursue graduate education in history. This thesis would not have been possible without her support. Professor Geoffrey Wawro directed my thesis. He provided helpful feedback regarding content and structure. Professor Robert Citino offered equal measures of instruction and encouragement.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembrance Ni
    !1 remembrance ni Unique memorial to 36th Ulster Division In Belfast Cathedral there is a unique war memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division. It is a lectern which was presented by the Division O"cers’ Old Comrades’ Association. The war memorial lectern was dedicated on 10/11/1929, the same remembrance ni Issue 19 !2 weekend as the opening of the Cenotaph in the City Hall’s Garden of Remembrance. # The Cathedral was packed. The Queen’s Island Band, under George Dean, late of the, Norfolk Regiment, took part in the Service. The Dedication was performed by Bishop Grierson at the request of Col H A Packenham, CMG, on behalf of the donors. # The lectern contains Ireland’s Memorial Records, 1914-1918, in eight volumes which record the names of more than 49,000 Irishmen. The Records and the bronze statuette which surmounts the lectern were the gift of the Irish National War Memorial Committee. # The statuette is the work of Morris Harding and was designed by the architect of the Cathedral Sir Charles Nicholson, and for whom Maurice Harding had carried out many of the sculptured elements in the building. A contemporary Belfast Telegraph photograph of the lectern shows it covered in poppies. # In his sermon Revd A A Luce, MC, DD, who had served as a Captain, 12 Batt, RIR, pointed out that abstainers in the Ulster Division stuck to their principles, even refusing their rum ration in the front-line trenches! # remembrance ni Issue 19 !3 Arthur Aston Luce. MC, (1882 - 1977) was professor of philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin and also Precentor of St.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of the German Menace
    The Rise of the German Menace Imperial Anxiety and British Popular Culture, 1896-1903 Patrick Longson University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Doctoral Thesis for Submission to the School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham on 18 October 2013. Examined at the University of Birmingham on 3 January 2014 by: Professor John M. MacKenzie Professor Emeritus, University of Lancaster & Professor Matthew Hilton University of Birmingham Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Before the German Menace: Imperial Anxieties up to 1896 25 Chapter 2 The Kruger Telegram Crisis 43 Chapter 3 The Legacy of the Kruger Telegram, 1896-1902 70 Chapter 4 The German Imperial Menace: Popular Discourse and British Policy, 1902-1903 98 Conclusion 126 Bibliography 133 Acknowledgments The writing of this thesis has presented many varied challenges and trials. Without the support of so many people it would not have been possible. My long suffering supervisors Professor Corey Ross and Dr Kim Wagner have always been on hand to advise and inspire me. They have both gone above and beyond their obligations and I must express my sincere thanks and lasting friendship.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    British Journal for Military History Volume 7, Issue 1, March 2021 What’s in a name? Identifying military engagements in Egypt and the Levant, 1915-1918 Roslyn Shepherd King Pike ISSN: 2057-0422 Date of Publication: 19 March 2021 Citation: Roslyn Shepherd King Pike, ‘What’s in a name? Identifying military engagements in Egypt and the Levant, 1915-1918’, British Journal for Military History, 7.1 (2021), pp. 87-112. www.bjmh.org.uk This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The BJMH is produced with the support of IDENTIFYING MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS IN EGYPT & THE LEVANT 1915-1918 What’s in a name? Identifying military engagements in Egypt and the Levant, 1915- 1918 Roslyn Shepherd King Pike* Independent Scholar Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article examines the official names listed in the 'Egypt and Palestine' section of the 1922 report by the British Army’s Battles Nomenclature Committee and compares them with descriptions of military engagements in the Official History to establish if they clearly identify the events. The Committee’s application of their own definitions and guidelines during the process of naming these conflicts is evaluated together with examples of more recent usages in selected secondary sources. The articles concludes that the Committee’s failure to accurately identify the events of this campaign have had a negative impacted on subsequent historiography. Introduction While the perennial rose would still smell the same if called a lily, any discussion of military engagements relies on accurate and generally agreed on enduring names, so historians, veterans, and the wider community, can talk with some degree of confidence about particular events, and they can be meaningfully written into history.
    [Show full text]
  • Nielsen Collection Holdings Western Illinois University Libraries
    Nielsen Collection Holdings Western Illinois University Libraries Call Number Author Title Item Enum Copy # Publisher Date of Publication BS2625 .F6 1920 Acts of the Apostles / edited by F.J. Foakes v.1 1 Macmillan and Co., 1920-1933. Jackson and Kirsopp Lake. BS2625 .F6 1920 Acts of the Apostles / edited by F.J. Foakes v.2 1 Macmillan and Co., 1920-1933. Jackson and Kirsopp Lake. BS2625 .F6 1920 Acts of the Apostles / edited by F.J. Foakes v.3 1 Macmillan and Co., 1920-1933. Jackson and Kirsopp Lake. BS2625 .F6 1920 Acts of the Apostles / edited by F.J. Foakes v.4 1 Macmillan and Co., 1920-1933. Jackson and Kirsopp Lake. BS2625 .F6 1920 Acts of the Apostles / edited by F.J. Foakes v.5 1 Macmillan and Co., 1920-1933. Jackson and Kirsopp Lake. PG3356 .A55 1987 Alexander Pushkin / edited and with an 1 Chelsea House 1987. introduction by Harold Bloom. Publishers, LA227.4 .A44 1998 American academic culture in transformation : 1 Princeton University 1998, c1997. fifty years, four disciplines / edited with an Press, introduction by Thomas Bender and Carl E. Schorske ; foreword by Stephen R. Graubard. PC2689 .A45 1984 American Express international traveler's 1 Simon and Schuster, c1984. pocket French dictionary and phrase book. REF. PE1628 .A623 American Heritage dictionary of the English 1 Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 2000 language. REF. PE1628 .A623 American Heritage dictionary of the English 2 Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 2000 language. DS155 .A599 1995 Anatolia : cauldron of cultures / by the editors 1 Time-Life Books, c1995. of Time-Life Books. BS440 .A54 1992 Anchor Bible dictionary / David Noel v.1 1 Doubleday, c1992.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of 119 Infantry Brigade in the Great War with Special Reference To
    The History of 119 Infantry Brigade in the Great War with Special Reference to the Command of Brigadier-General Frank Percy Crozier by Michael Anthony Taylor A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract 119 Brigade, 40th Division, had an unusual origin as a ‘left-over’ brigade of the Welsh Army Corps and was the only completely bantam formation outside 35th Division. This study investigates the formation’s national identity and demonstrates that it was indeed strongly ‘Welsh’ in more than name until 1918. New data on the social background of men and officers is added to that generated by earlier studies. The examination of the brigade’s actions on the Western Front challenges the widely held belief that there was an inherent problem with this and other bantam formations. The original make-up of the brigade is compared with its later forms when new and less efficient units were introduced.
    [Show full text]
  • Spy Culture and the Making of the Modern Intelligence Agency: from Richard Hannay to James Bond to Drone Warfare By
    Spy Culture and the Making of the Modern Intelligence Agency: From Richard Hannay to James Bond to Drone Warfare by Matthew A. Bellamy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (English Language and Literature) in the University of Michigan 2018 Dissertation Committee: Associate Professor Susan Najita, Chair Professor Daniel Hack Professor Mika Lavaque-Manty Associate Professor Andrea Zemgulys Matthew A. Bellamy [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6914-8116 © Matthew A. Bellamy 2018 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to all my students, from those in Jacksonville, Florida to those in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is also dedicated to the friends and mentors who have been with me over the seven years of my graduate career. Especially to Charity and Charisse. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii List of Figures v Abstract vi Chapter 1 Introduction: Espionage as the Loss of Agency 1 Methodology; or, Why Study Spy Fiction? 3 A Brief Overview of the Entwined Histories of Espionage as a Practice and Espionage as a Cultural Product 20 Chapter Outline: Chapters 2 and 3 31 Chapter Outline: Chapters 4, 5 and 6 40 Chapter 2 The Spy Agency as a Discursive Formation, Part 1: Conspiracy, Bureaucracy and the Espionage Mindset 52 The SPECTRE of the Many-Headed HYDRA: Conspiracy and the Public’s Experience of Spy Agencies 64 Writing in the Machine: Bureaucracy and Espionage 86 Chapter 3: The Spy Agency as a Discursive Formation, Part 2: Cruelty and Technophilia
    [Show full text]
  • PANELS-FINAL 1 7 2014 Docx
    Perspectives on the “Great” War International Conference, August 1-4, 2014 ST AUGUST 1 9.00: Registration 14.15: Key-Note Lecture, Jay Winter, ‘The Great War in Transnational Perspective’ 18.00: Reception 19.45: Welcoming Address, Professor Simon Gaskell (QMUL) and a representative from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London 20.00: Key-Note Lecture, Elza Adamowicz, ‘Art at War: the European Avant-Garde and World War I’ STRAND A Political Perspectives I (Chair: Egbert Klautke) 10.00 Jeff Roquen Woodrow Wilson and the Foreign Policy of Human Rights 1914-1917 10.30 John Galante Mobilizing Diaspora: The Great War in the Italian South Atlantic 11.00: Break 11.30 Shusuke Takahara America's withdrawal from Siberia and Japan-US relations: A New Perspective on the Wilson Administration's Decision Making 12.00 Gerhard Fischer The Governor-General’s Apology: Reflections on Australia’s Participation in WWI 12.30 Carolina Garcia Sanz Fake Neutrality: Spain during the First World War 13.00: Lunch 14.15: Key-Note Lecture Political Perspectives II (Chair: ) 15.30 Liisi Eglit Fighting as a Minority: Estonian Soldiers inside the Russian Army and their WWI Experience 16.00 Tushar Kanti Saha A Critical Analysis of Lenin’s Peace Seeking Role in World War I Dynamics 16.30: Break 17.00 Andrey Mikhailov The Military Cooperation of Russia with its Allies during the First World War (1914-1917) STRAND B 1 Educational Perspectives 10.00 Ann-Marie Einhaus and Catriona Pennell The First World War in the Classroom: Exploring the Teacher’s Perspective
    [Show full text]
  • Modem Women's Poetry 1910—1929
    Modem Women’s Poetry 1910—1929 Jane Dowson Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester. 1998 UMI Number: U117004 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U117004 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Modern Women9s Poetry 1910-1929 Jane Dowson Abstract In tracing the publications and publishing initiatives of early twentieth-century women poets in Britain, this thesis reviews their work in the context of a male-dominated literary environment and the cultural shifts relating to the First World War, women’s suffrage and the growth of popular culture. The first two chapters outline a climate of new rights and opportunities in which women became public poets for the first time. They ran printing presses and bookshops, edited magazines and wrote criticism. They aimed to align themselves with a male tradition which excluded them and insisted upon their difference. Defining themselves antithetically to the mythologised poetess of the nineteenth century and popular verse, they developed strategies for disguising their gender through indeterminate speakers, fictional dramatisations or anti-realist subversions.
    [Show full text]
  • The German Corpse Factory the Master Hoax of British Propaganda in the First World War Joachim Neander
    t.g theologie.geschichte herausgegeben von der Universität des Saarlandes Beiheft 6: The German Corpse Factory The Master Hoax of British Propaganda in the First World War Joachim Neander The German Corpse Factory The Master Hoax of British Propaganda in the First World War universaar Universitätsverlag des Saarlandes Saarland University Press Presses Universitaires de la Sarre © 2013 universaar Universitätsverlag des Saarlandes Saarland University Press Presses Universitaires de la Sarre Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrücken ISSN 2191-1592 gedruckte Ausgabe ISSN 2191-4745 Online-Ausgabe ISBN 978-3-86223-117-1 gedruckte Ausgabe ISBN 978-3-86223-118-8 Online-Ausgabe URN urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-universaar-t.g.beihefte.v60 Gestaltung und Satz: Dr. August Leugers-Scherzberg, Julian Wichert Projektbetreuung universaar: Müller, Alt Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier von Monsenstein & Vannerdat Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen National bibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.d-nb.de> abrufbar. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 7 I. ATROCITIES, DENIAL, AND ANTI-DENIAL ............. 25 II. THE ROOTS OF THE LEGEND ............................... 43 III. A PROPAGANDA BLITZ: THE “CORPSE FACTORY” CONQUERS THE WORLD ...................................... 131 IV. “KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING” .................... 179 V. THE “CORPSE FACTORY” GOES GLOBAL
    [Show full text]
  • War Poetry: Impacts on British Understanding of World War One
    Central Washington University ScholarWorks@CWU All Undergraduate Projects Undergraduate Student Projects Spring 2019 War Poetry: Impacts on British Understanding of World War One Holly Fleshman Central Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/undergradproj Part of the European History Commons, Military History Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Fleshman, Holly, "War Poetry: Impacts on British Understanding of World War One" (2019). All Undergraduate Projects. 104. https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/undergradproj/104 This Undergraduate Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Student Projects at ScholarWorks@CWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Undergraduate Projects by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@CWU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………….. 2 Body………..………………………………………………………………….. 3 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………. 20 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………….. 24 End Notes ……………………………………………………………………... 28 1 Abstract The military and technological innovations deployed during World War I ushered in a new phase of modern warfare. Newly developed technologies and weapons created an environment which no one had seen before, and as a result, an entire generation of soldiers and their families had to learn to cope with new conditions of shell shock. For many of those affected, poetry offered an outlet to express their thoughts, feelings and experiences. For Great Britain, the work of Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves have been highly recognized, both at the time and in the present. Newspaper articles and reviews published by prominent companies of the time make it clear that each of these poets, who expressed strong opinions and feelings toward the war, deeply influenced public opinion.
    [Show full text]
  • French Perceptions of Britain from Fashoda to the Boer War
    Cross Channel Reflections : French Perceptions of Britain from Fashoda to the Boer War. John Edward Blockley. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 1 Statement of Originality. I, John Edward Blockley, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: John Edward Blockley. Date: 10 July 2014 Acknowledgement of Support. This work was supported by a Queen Mary, University of London, French studies bursary. Abstract. This Thesis adopts a variety of different approaches in order to throw light on French perceptions of the British at the turn of the twentieth century. Introduction, chapters one and two set these in the broader context of nineteenth-century attitudes, in particular the genre of invasion literature, and the corpus of work produced by writers from the Ecole Libre, Paris.
    [Show full text]