Collectivized cultural of the wilfred owenization of the First World War. It looks at the impact through the lens of doomed youth. Doomed youth, lost generation, what ever grim moniker we want to use. This is another one of those problematic lenses that i believe we should remove from our world war i glasses. In other words, we need a new prescription for the wars memory. We are going to be more aggressive we should cut out the cataract off disillusionment and with clear eyes view the war generation. Our case study this afternoon, war literature released in the 1920s, has to do with the value of literature to show us the emotional impact of war. We should have no doubt as to this value. But we should still, as historians, exercise good oldfashioned skepticism as to whether literature is an effective way of interpreting complicated historical experiences. We are trying to get at the heart of the notion of disillusionment. I will use it interchangeably with disenchantment because war wri
Wilfred owen, written as it was ongoing. Wilfred himself was a junior officer in the british army in the First World War. They are often reprinted words and they show us something about the brutality of war and the experience of war on the western front. They also show us something political. In an argument here, especially in the last part where he talks about men dying for nations, for national causes. The stakes of this one mans death from gas become very high indeed in Wilfred Owens eyes. This gives us a sense of what nations ask men to do in war. To complicate this, i want to give you a quote from another war writer, a patriotic novelist who fought on the western front. His name was ian hague. He was reflecting in the 1930s about war books. Specifically about war books that show us the sortedness of the great war in british memory. He writes, for the last 10 years, weve been submerged by a flood of socalled war books which depict the men who fought as brutes and beasts, as living
Ordinary dull dirts he is not referring to wilfred owen as dull dirt, but sensationalized war novels. He says we do not need to worry about these sensationalized accounts, but others are undoubtedly sincere. They are genuine. Their object is obvious and understandable, to paint war in such horrible colors that no one will ever fight again. You can certainly see that in owens poems and you can see it in so much of the literature that comes out of the great war. So far, in this class, we have approached the topic of war and its impact on individuals, but also wars representations, and what im going to call simply wars stories. How war story works in culture and how historians approach that story from within cultural frameworks. Using two case studies that we have spent time with all semester long, the impact of the civil war, of course, fought around us in the fields of gettysburg and more recently in the last few weeks our discussion about combat experience about the First World War, we
In that those who didnt participate, meaning the civilians left at home, especially in the u. S. Where the war didnt come here, so the civilians didnt have a context of this ultimate suffering that the soldiers went through. And so to the people at home who were waiting for their men to come home, they came back. It was a sensationalism in the sense that you guys were heros in the war. Now lets get on with our lives because ive been waiting for you. And i think that that idea of civilians wait iing, it kind of steam rolls soldier memory. The soldiers arent waiting in the same sense that the civilians are. Their experiences are, oh, great, lets move on. Save that title. Steam roller of memory. Someone else had a hand up. Pete . I think i think it says that because at least this is one what im thinking. In world war i, theres nothing sensational about american involvement. You would think americans were god on earth in world war i for saving everyone. In the context of the larger story o
Five niness. Fittingly, we have a pockmarked, shell torn landscape behind the soldiers. Quick, boys, in ecstasy of fumbling. Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, but someone was still yelling out and stumbling then through the misty panes and thick green light as in a green sea, i saw him drowning in all my dreams he plunges toward me, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace if you could hear at every jolt, the blood, gargling from the frost corrupted lungs, my friends, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some great glory. That it is sweet and fitting to die for s country. These are of course the words of wilfred when, written as it was ongoing. Wilfred himself was a junior officer in the british army in the First World War. They are often reprinted words and they show us something about the brutality of war and the experience of war on the front. The totality of war. They also show us something political. In an argument here, e