Attridge, Steve (1993) The soldier in late Victorian society : images and ambiguities. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines effects of the Boer War (1899-
1902) on images of the soldier. The thesis argues that the
trauma of the Boer War for British political culture be may explored in changes in representations of the soldier
to be found in the production and reception of
contemporary literary genres and popular forms. This
change cannot be theorized adequately in terms of an
intensification of patriotism, the development of
nationalism or a crisis of imperialism. A pervasive
approach, often drawing on the work of Edward Said, has as
its central premise that imperial polity imposes a
discourse of domination on its relacitrant Other. This
approach will be found to lack the conceptual nuances
needed to address the different forms of representation
examined in the thesis. These different forms of
representation articulate a range of responses to the
repercussion of the war on the relation between the
shifting external boundaries of Empire and the internal
boundaries of civil society between state and civil
society, civilian and military identities, class
antagonisms and national projections. Changes in the image
of the soldier bear the irresistable politicization as
well as the contrary paradoxical burdens of the attempted
pacification of those related external and internal
boundaries. The thesis includes a study of a range of
sources, including as yet undiscussed texts, which verify
and explore further the argument that literary and popular
forms and representations display the changing fault lines
of political culture rather than simply present or act as
vehicles for a truiumphalist and unequivocal discursive
domination.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Soldiers -- Great Britain -- History, South African War, 1899-1902, English literature -- 19th century -- Political aspects, Soldiers in literature, Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century
Official Date:	November 1993
Dates:	Date Event November 1993 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	iii, 292 leaves
Language:	eng

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