“Lest We Forget”: Canadian Combatant Narratives of the Great War by Monique Dumontet A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English, Film, and Theatre University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoaba Copyright © 2010 by Monique Dumontet Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70307-6 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-70307-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. 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. Acknowledgements It is my pleasure to thank my advisor, David Williams. I admire his intellectual discipline as well as his commitment to teaching, and am thankful for his mentorship throughout my Ph.D. programme. Among my favorite graduate school memories, I remember how David taught me that writing in the margins adds value to texts. While writing this dissertation, I was always grateful for his unflagging encouragement, his expert guidance, and his meticulous attention to editing details. For all of the time and energy you’ve given me, David, I thank you. I appreciate the financial support I received from St. Paul’s College—my “home base” on campus. I wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I would also like to thank Mark Libin, Gerald Friesen, Adam Muller, and Jonathan Vance. In addition, I wish to acknowledge my parents, Norm and Liz Dumontet for their unending encouragement. Their support and care helped me overcome setbacks and stay focused on my graduate studies. Mom and Dad, I could not have done it without you. I am also grateful to my good friends, who helped me maintain balance in my life with timely distractions. I would like to thank my academic sister, Ying Kong, and my colleagues at the Learning Assistance Centre, especially Miriam Unruh who gave practical help and sincere understanding. I have also been inspired by many of the students I worked with at the Learning Assistance Centre, especially the graduate students whose hard work and dedication to their own thesis projects served as encouraging examples. Finally, I am delighted to thank Amir Shalmashi, whose love and support brings joy to my heart. i Abstract Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) has long been the dominant cultural study of Great War Literature. Because Canadian literary critics, such as Evelyn Cobley and Dagmar Novak, rely on Fussell’s text as a model when they write about Great War texts, they either eliminate a variety of interesting texts, or severely distort and misread a narrow range of texts to make them fit Fussell’s ironic, anti-war ideology. This study aims to recuperate and reevaluate a number of Canadian Great War texts by examining a wider ideological range of texts than Fussell or his followers allow. In Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (1997), cultural historian Jonathan Vance offers a viable antithesis to Fussell in his method and conclusions. This present study, focused on eight Canadian combatant narratives written between 1917-1939, develops and expands Vance’s argument from the vantage point of literary criticism. The first chapter examines four canonical European anti-war texts, delineating their characteristic features and ideological positions. Chapter 2 shows how the extreme ends of the spectrum of literary responses to the war in Canadian combatant writing distort the truth and are equally unsatisfying. Chapter 3 examines three Canadian narratives located in the middle ground between jingoistic romances and cynical anti-war texts, focusing on their social inclusivity and balance—features which allow for a more multifaceted representation of the Great War. Chapters 4 and 5 offer close readings of two of the best Canadian combatant narratives, Will Bird’s memoir And We Go On, and Philip Child’s novel God’s Sparrows, showing not only how both texts confirm and ii illustrate the characteristics of more inclusive, balanced war texts, but also how they evoke and affirm the fact of historical and social continuity. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... i Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Part I: The German and British War Canon Chapter 1: The Inter-War Years and the Anti-War Canon ...................................................... 22 Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1928/1929) ............................. 23 Richard Aldington, Death of a Hero (1929) ..................................................................... 37 R.C. Sherriff, Journey’s End (1929) .................................................................................. 45 Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (1937) ........................... 55 Part II: Ideological Polarities in Canadian Great War Narratives Chapter 2: The ‘Old Lie’ and the ‘Big Lie’: False Notes in Inter-War Canadian Fiction ........ 80 Ralph Connor (Charles W. Gordon), The Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land (1919) ................. 82 Peregrine Acland, All Else Is Folly: A Tale of War and Passion (1929) .......................... 94 Charles Yale Harrison, Generals Die in Bed (1930) ....................................................... 114 Chapter 3: Refuting the Myth of Passivity: Social Levelling and Social Inclusivity ............. 133 Jack O’Brien, Into the Jaws of Death (1919) .................................................................. 134 James Pedley, Only This (1927) ...................................................................................... 155 George Godwin, Why Stay We Here? (1930) .................................................................. 184 Part III: Freedom and Tradition Chapter 4: The Continuities of History in Will Bird’s And We Go On (1930) ...................... 220 Chapter 5: The Continuity of Organic Society in Philip Child’s God’s Sparrows (1937) ..... 290 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 329 Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 338 Notes ....................................................................................................................................... 349 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................ 353 iv Introduction The title of this dissertation, “Lest We Forget,” manifestly derives from the refrain of Rudyard Kipling’s “Recessional,” written in 1897 on the occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. But it is a Janus-faced poem that simultaneously looks two ways in a celebration of imperial pride, and in a stark warning against hubris by recalling the decline of other empires (with particular reference in line sixteen to “Nineveh and Tyre,” the capitals of two great empires that are no more). Though written seventeen years before the Great War began, the poem’s plea not to forget past sacrifices has long been linked in social rituals of remembrance with the Great War (1914-1918), as it continues to be cited in Remembrance Day observances, on war memorials, and in epitaphs for fallen soldiers. In this vein of social remembrance, one ought not to forget Laurence Binyon’s oft-cited poem, “For the Fallen,” first published by The Times