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Canadian War Remembrance and the Ghosts of Ortona

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KILLING MATTERS: CANADIAN WAR REMEMBRANCE AND THE GHOSTS OF ORTONA David Ian Cosh A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Social Anthropology York University Toronto, Ontario November 2014 © David Ian Cosh 2014 ii Abstract This dissertation combines critical discourse analysis with person-centred ethnography to examine the dissonant relationships between Canadian war veterans' narratives and the national discourse of Canadian war remembrance. The dissertation analyses Canadian war remembrance as a ritualized discourse (named Remembrance) that is produced in commemorative rituals, symbols, poetry, monuments, pilgrimages, artwork, history-writing, political speeches, government documents, media reports, and the design of the Canadian War Museum. This Remembrance discourse foregrounds and valorizes the suffering of soldiers and makes the soldier's act of dying the central issue of war. In doing so, Remembrance suppresses the significance of the soldier's act of killing and attributes this orientational framework to veterans themselves, as if it is consistent with their experiences. The dissertation problematizes this Remembrance framing of war through an analysis of WWII veterans' narratives drawn from ethnographic fieldwork that was conducted in western Canada with 23 veterans of the WWII battle of Ortona, Italy. The fieldwork consisted of life-story interviews that focused on veterans' combat experiences, supplemented by archival research and a study of the Ortona Christmas reconciliation dinner with former enemy soldiers. Through psychoanalytically-informed discourse analysis, the narratives are interpreted in terms of hidden meanings and trauma signals associated with the issue of killing. The analysis shows that many of these veterans were strongly affected by killing even when they did not know if they had killed and even though most of them tried to suppress their dissonant affects. In sum, these Ortona veterans' narratives constitute dissonant acts of remembrance that unsettle the limited moral frame within which Canadians imagine war. iii The darkness crumbles away. It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As I pull the parapet's poppy To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies. Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, Less chanced than you for life, Bonds to the whims of murder, Sprawled in the bowels of the earth, The torn fields of France. What do you see in our eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled through still heavens? What quaver – what heart aghast? Poppies whose roots are in man's veins Drop, and are ever dropping; But mine in my ear is safe – Just a little white with the dust. – Isaac Rosenberg, 'Break of Day in the Trenches' iv Acknowledgements This has been a long and challenging project and I could not have completed it without the help of many people along the way. My first thanks are to all of the veterans who participated in my research. I conducted interviews with 23 Canadian veterans of the Battle of Ortona. I wish to thank these men for their time and their assistance. One of them did not want to be identified by his real name, but the others are listed here. Jack Birmingham Angus Campbell Roland L. Castagner Ralph Craven John A. Dougan David I. Fairweather H.G. Field Wilf Gildersleeve Steve Kmiech Peter Kutinsky Samuel Lenko Alon M. Johnson Melville A. McPhee Denis Meade Patrick Searson Bill Shaw C.F. Swan William Teleske Ernest W. Thomas D. Norman Tweedhope Maurice D. White H.R. Wylie I am especially grateful to Mel McPhee, Sam Lenko and Angus Campbell who took a strong interest in my work, introduced me to many of their colleagues in Edmonton, and inspired me with their thoughtfulness and good humour. I am also indebted to Ted Griffiths whose Christmas 1998 initiative was the original inspiration for my research. I benefited greatly from Ted's generosity and encouragement in the early stages of my work. In Vancouver, Bill Whorton and David Ferguson of the Seaforth Highlanders Association were a great help to me, assisting my research in the Seaforth Archives and my efforts to contact other veterans. In addition, I am thankful to the family members and especially the wives of many veterans for welcoming me into their homes. It was a pleasure during my research to meet so many generous people. Many in Italy and Germany also participated in my research. Even though their stories are regrettably not included here, they informed my perspective and are very much remembered and v appreciated. Among the many Ortonesi who shared their experiences with me, I am especially grateful to Tommaso Sorino and Angelo Tenisci for their great help with my research and their heartwarming companionship. In Germany, I was privileged to interview Willie Fretz, Karl Bayerlein and Fritz Illi. I owe special thanks to Willie Fretz for his very kind interest and assistance. In the course of my fieldwork, I benefitted from conversations with Jack Granatstein at the Canadian War Museum; Bill McAndrew at the Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence; and the Honourable Sam Hughes, former historical officer with the Canadian Army Historical Section. I appreciate the assistance of the staff at Library and Archives Canada, the City of Edmonton Archives, and the University of Victoria Archives. My thanks also to Susan Ross at the Canadian War Museum and Dan Black at Legion Magazine for their assistance with some of the images in my dissertation. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support that I received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, IODE Canada, the Mariano A. Elia Chair, and York University's Faculty of Graduate Studies. Funding from CUPE 3903 and Wilfrid Laurier University helped me to present and receive feedback on aspects of my research at conferences in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. My supervisor, Dan Yon, has been a mentor throughout my doctoral studies. Dan has inspired and informed my approach to life story research and writing, and has guided me with wonderfully good humour through difficult moments in the process; I could not have made it this far without his incredible support and confidence. Malcolm Blincow has been a profound source of support and intellectual inspiration since my first day of graduate studies. He is an exemplar of humane and disciplined anthropological scholarship, and a wise and compassionate teacher; many of my best ideas have come from conversations with him. Daphne Winland offered me invaluable advice during my fieldwork, strongly encouraged my interest in the stories, and provided constructive criticism that prompted me to improve key aspects of my argument; I am very grateful for her support. In addition to this excellent supervisory committee, I was fortunate to have very thoughtful external examiners. Catherine Lutz, Deborah Britzman and Marcel Martel offered perceptive critiques and comments on the dissertation and helped to make my defence a very positive and informative experience. Within the York University Department of Anthropology, I received valuable assistance from Ken Little, who put a great deal of effort into reading early drafts of my work and offering insights and suggestions; David Lumsden, who encouraged me to go to Ortona when I was having doubts, and who collected very useful newspaper articles for me about the trip; and Shubhra Gururani and Teresa Holmes, who provided consistent and friendly moral support. Also at York, I received valuable advice from Mark Webber, Roberto Perin and Steve Hellman. I am grateful to Andrew Lyons and Michel Desjardins at Wilfrid Laurier University for their thoughtful conversations with me about my work. Bernard Arcand and Jean-Jacques Chalifoux at Laval University also provided me with thoughtful observations in the early stages of my research. As the Ph.D. is the culmination of my career as a university student, I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge my teachers at McGill University. Roger Keesing inspired me to vi become an anthropologist; he was a model of curiosity, creativity and commitment to social justice. Valentin Boss and Pierre Boulle introduced me to primary source historical research as an exciting critical and creative practice. Pierre Boulle in particular fostered confidence in my abilities. Judith Whitehead provided my first instruction in reading theory and was instrumental in my decision to pursue graduate studies. I also consider Jason Winkler and Madu Vallabhaneni among my most important teachers. Their humane knowledge and practice was an inspiration for my present work. I am especially indebted to Jason for helping me through the later stages of the dissertation with his generosity, wisdom and sense of humour. I thank the following friends, colleagues and acquaintances who at various times through the years of this project have helped me with moral support, large and small acts of kindness, advice, and reminders of the joys and absurdities of life: Mauricio Argote-Cortes, Laurie Baker, Andrea Basti, Ronna Bloom, Mauro Casiraghi, Marta Castilho, Antonio Catena, David Cavers, Aekkamol Cheawsamoot, Khairul Chowdhury,
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