Kerr, Douglas (1978) A comparison of some French and English literary responses to the 1914-1918 War. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis proposes a comparative study of some
imaginative responses to the Great War in English and French
writing. The principal works discussed range from Peguy's
anticipation of the war in his poem Eve (1913) to David Jones's
recreative memory of it in his poem In Parenthesis (1937).
The survey is limited to British and French works, and does
not include American and colonial contributions, or the
war-writings of other combatant countries..
The thesis examines the various ways in which twelve
authors - six English and six French - developed and expressed
their individual response to the Great War. It
is not based on an imaginary anthology of the dozen best
war-writings. The twelve examples have been chosen to
illustrate and cover as wide a range as possible of the ways
the historical experience could be met and interpreted in
literature. They include writings by civilians, and by
commissioned and non-commissioned soldiers; narrative and
discursive prose, essays, letters, and verse.
The first chapter considers the war-writings of
Rupert Brooke, H. G. Wells and T. E. Hulme; and the second
chapter discusses the work of Charles Peguy, Henri Barbusse
and Jacques Vache. Chapter 3 is concerned with three novels,
by Jean Cocteau, Richard Aldington, and Proust. In the
second half of the work, a chapter each is given to Wilfred
Owen, Guillaume Apollinaire and David Jones.
War-writings by definition include history, and
even those most innocent of a propaganda intention are
likely to betray an interpretation of history, as well as
having some documentary value and, at a less visible level,
enacting a private drama. The literature of the Great War,
considered as a sub-genre, is the product both of shared
and of individual, intimate experience. The purpose of
this study has been to suggest the variety of possible
literary responses to the Great War; to discover what
these responses are likely to have in common, and thus to
offer a sketch-map of the topography of the 1914-1918 war
in English and French writing; and, by locating these works
in a context of European literature as well as of world
history, to allow each text discussed reciprocally to
illuminate and criticise the others.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D501 World War I P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	War in literature, World War, 1914-1918, English literature -- 20th century, French literature -- 20th century
Official Date:	August 1978
Dates:	Date Event August 1978 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	vii, 343 leaves
Language:	eng

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