Reassessing the Modernist Elements in Siegfried Sassoon's War Writing
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A RELUCTANT MODERNIST: Reassessing the Modernist Elements in Siegfried Sassoon’s War Writing Un MODERNISTE RETICENT: Reevaluation des elements modemistes dans les Merits de guerre de Siegfried Sassoon. A Thesis Submitted to the Division of Graduate Studies of the Royal military College of Canada by Finley Lawrence Mullally, CD Lieutenant-Colonel In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts September 2012 © This thesis may be used within the Department o f National Defence but copyright for open publication remains the property of the author. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE OF CANADA COLLEGE MILITAIRE ROYAL DU CANADA DIVISION OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH DIVISION DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES ET DE LA RECHERCHE This is to certify that the thesis prepared by/Ceci certifie que la these redigee par FINLEY LAWRENCE MULLALLY entitled/intitulee A RELUCTANT MODERNIST: REASSESSING THE MODERNIST ELEMENTS IN SIEGFRIED SASSOON’S WAR WRITING/ Un MODERNISTE RETICENT: REEVALUATION d e s El e m e n t s modernistes d a n s l e s e c r it s de g u e r r e d e Sie g f r ie d SASSOON. complies with the Royal military College of Canada regulations and that it meets the accepted standards of die Graduate School with respect to quality, / satisfait aux reglements du College militaire royal du Canada et qu’elle respecte les normes aceptees par la Faculte des etudes superieures quant a la qualite, for the degree of / pour le diplome de MASTER OF ARTS / MAITRE DES ARTS Signed by the final examining committee: / Signe par les membres du comite examinateur de la soutenance de these _______________________________. Chair / President _______ . External Examiner / Examinateur exteme __________________________________. Supervisor / Directeur de these __________________________. Supervisor / Directeur de these Approved by the Head of Department: / Approuve par le Directeur du Department: __________________________ Date: ______ To the Librarian: this thesis is not to be regarded as classified. / Au Bibliothecaire: Cette these n’est pas consideree comme a publication restreinte. Main Supervisor / Directeur de these pricipal ABSTRACT Mullally, Finley Lawrence. M.A. in War Studies. The Royal Military College of Canada. July 2012. A RELUCTANT MODERNIST: REASSESSING THE MODERNIST ELEMENTS IN SIEGFRIED SASSOON’S WAR WRITING/Un MODERNISTE RETICENT: REEVALUATION DES ELEMENTS MODERNISTES DANS LES ECRITS DE GUERRE DE SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Dr Tom Vincent and Dr Steven Lukits. Siegfried Sassoon was one of the English Poets included in Edward Marsh’s Georgian Poetry anthologies and tended, as did his fellows, to nineteenth-century conservatism, romanticism and sentimentality. His war poetry however, at least that written after his first encounter with trench warfare, shifts dramatically into a verse characterised by themes of outrage, despair, iconoclasm, and futility, elements associated with modernist forms of literature. Sassoon is often presented in First World War literary criticism as a Georgian, steeped in the optimism of the nineteenth century, who is temporarily transformed into a sort of accidental modernist. This interpretation is supported by Sassoon, who claimed to reject modernism as an ideology and who returned to composing Georgian verse after the war; however, when Sassoon revisited his war experience in a trilogy of prose accounts, collectively The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston. he could only memorialise the event using existential and modernist modes. Through a close comparison between the Complete Memoirs and the war poetry, deconstructing the writing thematically rather than aesthetically, this study asserts that Sassoon is unable to reconcile his experience of the war with his nineteenth-century world view. What emerges is a portrait of a writer attempting to regain the rational optimism and social conservatism of prewar, rural England, but who has had his access to this world irrevocably severed. The Complete Memoirs provide no resolution to the essential problems of anger, despair, guilt, futility and meaninglessness Sassoon experiences in the war and explores in his poetry. This study of Sassoon’s war writing repositions him in the canon of early twentieth century writers as a modernist and demonstrates the transformative power of the Great War upon the literary traditions that it engendered. RESUME Siegfried Sassoon dtait l’un des podtes anglais dont l’oeuvre dtait reprdsentde dans les anthologies de Georgian Poetry fpoesie gdorgiennel d’Edward Marsh et tendait, comme ses confreres, vers le conservatisme, le romantisme et la sentimentality qui dtaient caractdristiques du dix-neuvidme sidcle. Ses podmes de guerre, cependant, du moins ceux qu’il avait dents aprds sa premidre expdrience de la guerre de tranchdes, se distingue de fagon radicale par des vers ddnotant l’outrage, le ddsespoir, l’iconoclasme et la futilitd, soit des dldments qui sont associds aux formes modemistes de littdrature. Sassoon est souvent prdsentd par les critiques littdraires de la Premidre Guerre mondiale comme un gdorgien, trempd dans le optimisme du dix-neuvidme sidcle, temporairement transformd en une espdee de modemiste accidentel. Cette interprdtation est appuyde par Sassoon, qui a affirmd rejeter la modemitd en tant qu’iddologie et qui s’est remis k composer des vers gdorgiens aprds la guerre; toutefois, lorsque Sassoon s’est penchdk nouveau sur l’expdrience qu’il avait vdcue pendant la guerre dans une trilogie de comptes rendus sous forme de prose, regroupds sous le titre The Complete Manoir&-of George Sherston (mdmoires complete de George Sherston. il ne pouvait commdmorer l’dvdnement qu’en utilisant les modes existentiel et modemiste. En s’appuyant sur une comparaison dtroite entre les podmes figurant dans les mdmoires complets et les podmes de guerre, cette dtude fait valoir, au moyen de la ddconstruction des dcrits en fonction de critdres lids aux thdmes plutot qu’d l’esthdtisme, que Sassoon est incapable de rdconcilier son expdrience de la guerre et sa vision du monde caractdristique du dix-neuvidme sidcle. II s’en ddgage un portrait de l’auteur qui tente de retrouver l’optimisme rationnel et le conservatisme social de l’Angleterre rurale d’avant la guerre, mais qui a vu son lien avec ce monde irrdvocablement ddtruit. Les mdmoires complets ne comportent aucune solution aux probldmes essentiels que sont la coldre, le ddsespoir, la culpability, la futility et l’absence de sens que Sassoon explore dans ses podmes. Cette dtude des dcrits de guerre de Sassoon le repositionne, au sein de l’dventail des auteurs du ddbut du vingtidme sidcle, comme un modemiste, et ddmontre la puissance transformatrice de la Guerre des Guerres sur les traditions littdraires qu’elle a engendrdes. Acknowledgements This paper grew out of work I did for Professor Peter Archambault’s cultural history course, “Total War and the Twentieth Century,” where I was introduced to Paul Fussell and the connection between literary modernism and the First World War. I am very grateful to Professor Emeritus Tom Vincent, my principal teacher and advisor, who set me along this trajectory and who steered me back on course whenever my own intellect led me into the low ground. Professor Steven Lukits, Head of the English Department, sharpened my focus and provided the motivation I needed to finish the project and 1 owe him for his close criticism and scrupulous editing. Any errors remaining in the text were placed there afterwards by me so that my friends would know that I wrote it. My wife, Leydin, has accompanied me on this and several other more dubious journeys always with grace, humour and grit. I could wish for no better companion and I am ever thankful for the unyielding support I receive daily from her. She has always helped me discern my duty and she remains the sole measure of my aspirations. This work was interrupted about halfway through when I deployed to Afghanistan on Operation Athena. When I picked it up again during post-deployment leave, I reread Sassoon with fresh eyes and new insight. My own experiences allowed me a more personal understanding of the essential issues at play in Sassoon’s war writing; I must acknowledge a debt to Sassoon as thinking about his books has helped me find my own way home.