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This thesis studies the clash between the hero and the First World War in the works of Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It explores.
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Author: Carl Olsson Supervisor: Anna Greek Examiner: Anne Holm Term: Spring 20 18 Subject: English Level: G Course code: 4ENÄ2E
This thesis studies the clash between the hero and the First World War in the works of Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. It explores the impact on their poetry and attitude towards the concept of the hero as it applied to them as people and poets. The study shows that over prolonged contact with the horrors of the First World War, it is evident in both literary sources and their poetry that both Sassoon and Owen changed their attitudes negatively towards both the idea of heroes and heroism, as well as the War as a just and glorious cause. However, the myth of the hero was still a core belief of their society, and in order to not be branded cowards and discarded along with their warnings, they had to become heroes in the eyes of their society, to openly attack the concept and the war it fueled. This thesis then studies how and why First World War poetry and literature should be utilized within the subject of English in the Swedish School System, as a means to provide a multicultural and critical education.
The Great War, The First World War, First World War Poetry, The hero in the First World War, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Trench Poetry, Poetry, First World War poetry in the Swedish education system, Heroes, Heroism, The hero in poetry, The hero as weapon, New Historicism, Critical Literature Pedagogy.
Thank you to Anna Greek, my supervisor, for all of your time and assistance. Thank you Johan Höglund for helping me find my direction in the jungle of pre-war literature on the hero. Thank you also to Marthin Lindstammer and Anthon Sannestam for being excellent fellow students and proof-readers. And thank you to Sanne Uvelind, for being such a fantastic ear and companion on this journey.
7 Didactic Reflection: Highlighting Norms and Values Through the Analysis of First World War Poetry ......................................................... 45 8 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 51 9 Works Cited ......................................................................................... 53 Appendices Appendix A “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke Ⅰ Appendix B “Absolution” by Siegfried Sassoon Ⅱ Appendix C “The Poet as Hero” by Siegfried Sassoon. Ⅲ Appendix D “Repression of War experience” by Siegfried Sassoon Ⅳ Appendix E “S.I.W” by Wilfred Owen Ⅴ
DULCE ET DECORUM EST Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.— Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (Owen)
War. His diaries, which stylistically were influenced by his aspiration of becoming an author, interested me. How were these ideas about the Gentleman’s war and the hero displayed in the literature created during the war? Kate MacDonald argues in her article “Rethinking the Depiction of Shell-shock in British Literature of the First World War, 1914– 1918 ” that: Ann-Marie Einhaus notes that, in the context of wartime memoirs, the realist approach was also favored by readers and critics. While contemporary reviewers naturally expected war memoirs to be well written, the core issue was the veracity of the author’s account of his war experiences, or the authenticity of what was depicted in comparison to the real thing, life at the front. Readers and critics alike expected war books to show them war as it really was, or rather, as they expected it to be. ( 57 ) And what did they expect life at the front to be like? The poets themselves realized the hollow myth of the hero when they experienced the brutality of modern warfare. This prompted them to denounce it through their poetry, although they were forced to conform to the concept in life. In 2018, soldier poets such as Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are widely read and taught, and their poetry has changed the way that British society views the First World War. However, the focus often lies on the horror they experienced, and the value of their sacrifice, rather than on the ideological and cultural influences which shaped both their preconceived ideas of heroes and heroism, and the society to which these virtues were unquestionable. This study examines how the hero was perceived before the First World War in British literature and culture, and subsequently how Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen changed their disposition negatively towards the concept of heroism and heroes in the encounter with the deadly reality of the First World War. This is achieved by analyzing “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke, “Absolution”, “The Poet as Hero” and “Repression of War experience” by Siegfried Sassoon as well as “Dulce et Decorum Est”, and “S.I.W” by Wilfred
Owen using a New Historicist approach with support from secondary written sources such as biographies and historical accounts. By dividing the analysis into three parts: The Idealist Notion of War, The Realities of War and The Aftermath of War, a clear shift in the poets’ sentiment towards notions of heroism and the hero can be observed. This shift is a negative, downwards spiral, in which the disillusioned poets denounce the existence of the hero, but simultaneously have to perform the duties of the hero required of them, lest being announced as cowards, and thusly being effectively silenced and disgraced. This game between power and subversion, wherein norms and values regarding masculinity and the individual were questioned by Sassoon and Owen continues today. Now the focus on highlighting norms and societal values has become central in the Swedish educational system. In the “Curriculum for the Upper Secondary School”, norms and values have a dedicated section, and it states that teachers should “openly discuss and together with the students analyse different values, views and problems, and the consequences of these” (Skolverket 11). Therefore, using First World War Poetry and the findings in this essay would allow teachers in the Swedish School system within the subject of English together with their students to study how norms and values portrayed in discourse such as literature and poetry have affected us and continue to influence us as individuals and as a society. Moreover, it enables the teachers of the English subject to work intersubjectively with the subject of History. Support for this type of suggested education is found in the syllabus for the English subject, which states that the course English 7 should contain core content that encompasses “Societal issues, cultural, historical, political and social conditions, and also ethical and existential issues in different contexts and parts of the world where English is used” (Skolverket 11 ).
of racial identities in their readers. In this field of study lies also the widespread idea of war as a cleansing and rejuvenating experience, prevalent both in Germany and Britain. Furthermore, I shall point to the apparent awareness that the British government had of these ideals, which was clearly shown when these ideals were weaponized to encourage young boys and men to enlist and fight. New Historicism: The Wish to Speak with the Dead The critical literary theory that I will utilize in this essay, New Historicism, rests more on the foundation of strong primary and secondary sources, rather than a pre-formed theory. In their work titled Practicing New Historicism Greenblatt and Gallagher argue that, “The task of understanding then depends nor on the extraction of an abstract set of principles, and still less on the application of a theoretical model, but rather on an encounter with the singular, the specific, and the individual” (6). The wide scope of New Historicism is what causes it to be difficult to define, since the field encompasses everything from psychoanalysis to deconstructionism and literary criticism (Li 8). Although difficult to narrow down, the focus on the exchange between discourse and history is central. Veeser argues in The New Historicism that “The New Historicists combat empty formalism by pulling historical considerations to the center stage of literary analysis” (xi). Moreover, New Historicism focuses on the sociopolitical and philosophical relationship between the critic and the criticism (Li 7). Hence, New historicist theory focuses on how literature has shaped and been shaped by historical events and systems of power, and how we as critics in our interaction with the texts in turn becomes part of the historical process. Correspondingly, Veeser argues that New Historicists “seize upon an event or an anecdote…and re-read it in such a way that as to reveal through the analysis of tiny particulars the behavioral codes, logics, and motive forces
controlling a whole society” (xi). This thesis focuses on the literary concept of the hero and heroism as a tool, used by the British society and government to shape boys into soldiers and explorers which would maintain the British Empire’s position of power. In this context, the subversion which the poetry represents created by the soldier poets is central to point to the “motive forces controlling a whole society”. This exchange of information between art and society is discussed by Greenblatt in his chapter “Towards a Poetics of Culture” as an example of a transaction (12). Using the poetry in this essay to explain this perspective, the poetry can be viewed as currency holding information about the reality of modern warfare. In turn, this information could have led to a shift in attitude amongst the British general public towards the concept of a just and heroic war, which in turn could have relieved the soldiers of their experience of isolation in knowledge of truth, and the fear of accusations of cowardice with ramifications to social standing. In this perspective, this cycle of influence between discourse and history is continuous, and new research such as this thesis becomes part of it. Hence, the information relayed by Owen in “Dulce et Decorum Est” is an exchange between art and society. In Owen’s case, ruling power structures and norms did not permit such an exchange of ideological currency to take place on a larger scale, instead the transaction occurred after his passing. The poetry of Sassoon, Owen and Brooke has become canon in the cultural memory of the war, shaping our understanding of the historical context, which is constantly being revalued by studies such as this one. In short, New Historicism focuses on the unceasing exchange between art and society, history and discourse. Thusly, New Historicism lends itself well as critical theory for the purpose of this essay, since the purpose of this essay is to examine the literary construct of the hero in a historical setting and the denouncement of the concept in its clash with reality. Moreover, New Historicism lends itself well in a didactical
in this thesis. Hence, the focus both in this thesis and its didactical use lies not only within the disillusionment or sacrifice, but rather on the power structure and norms which shaped the soldiers and their ideological perspective on taking part of the war. Supporting this line of inquiry, Borsheim-Black et al. and their article “Critical Literature Pedagogy” outline the pedagogical use of CLP, which they argue “aims to draw attention to implicit ideologies of text and textual practices by examining issues of power, normativity and representation” (123). This is achieved by teaching students to read with and against texts. Reading with a text, the student analyses storylines, literary devices, examine the historical context and develop thematic interpretations (Borsheim-Black et al. 124). However, in reading against a text, the student is encouraged to identify power structures and norms in the historical context which shaped the author and dictated its creation (Borsheim-Black et al. 12 5). In their study five areas of focus are presented, these are: Canonicity, Contexts, Literary Elements, Reader and Assessments_._ These areas should be considered as stepping stones for the student in their critical reading of texts (Borsheim-Black et al. 125). CLP and New Historicism, although different in terms of scope, with New Historicism being more open to a number of fields such as psychoanalysis and deconstructionism, find common ground in that they both are anthropological and ethnographic studies of literature (Li 7-8). Both new Historicism and CLP focus on the influence of sociopolitical power- structures on the text, as well as their influence on us as readers and critics. In order to base the analysis on strong historical secondary sources, New Historicist theory and method can be applied. The historical context of literary texts is the subject of the Sidney C Li’s study “Advancing Multicultural Education: New Historicism in the High School English Classroom”, which argues that analyzing historical texts in the English subject using secondary sources, would enable teachers of the English subject to give their students a multicultural and critical education (4). Li argues that it should not only be the subject of
History which should be responsible for delivering historical and cultural richness, but also the subject of English using New Historicist theory (4). Hence, in the didactical reflections of this thesis a combination of CLP and New Historicist theory will be used, to display how students could benefit from the study of First World War poetry within the subject of English in the Swedish upper secondary school. This would be accomplished by focusing on the five dimensions outlined by Borsheim-Black et al. and the relationship between history and discourse figuring in New Historicism.
In the imperial era of Britain, the vast empire relied on a volunteer army, and was dependent on the support and cooperation of its citizens. One must therefore imagine the creation of heroes as role models, banners, to which young men could flock. They were ideals created and reinforced to respond to the situation that the British society and empire was in. Adventure novels targeted the younger generations. Here the setting and narrative of the grand adventure in foreign lands influenced young boys to become soldiers, or, as the adventure stories rebranded them, “explorers” (Höglund 54). “Explorers” which mapped the vast reaches of the globe, surveying new land for the Empire which they called home. In his study, Mobilising the Novel: The Literature of Imperialism and The First World War , Johan A Höglund discusses the use of literature to promote political and ideological ideas and ideals. Höglund argues that “Through the colonial novel and the tropes it employs, young British readers were encouraged to identify with the imperial project. The adventure novel invariably contains a white, resourceful hero, often at an age corresponding with that of a juvenile reader” (55). Moreover, Höglund demonstrates that different tropes and euphemisms were used such as the adventure, which “encompasses virtually everything from apparently innocent treasure seeking to the violent suppression of indigenous uprisings” (54).
This colonial mindset sprang from many sources, in literary terms it can be traced to famous literary works by vastly different authors and times such as Robinson Crusoe as well as Swedish literature in the narrative of Pippi Longstocking’s father^1. The narrative of the male western hero did not start or end with the imperial tales of adventure that influenced the generation that headed into the trenches of the First World War. Instead, we can see the trend continue into literary works of our time. Both Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings are referenced in Houlihan’s work on the subject and both conform to the monomyth (14-32). Thusly, hero narratives of our generations have been augmented to fit societies, norms and values of today, the same way as they would have been augmented in the time before the First World War. Moreover, in euphemisms used in these adventure novels such as “Game”, the practices of violence and danger are conveyed as something exciting and fun, and the end results are represented as safe for the British protagonist. Hourihan argues that “A quality peculiar to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century children’s adventure stories is the depiction of violence as fun” (100). In the previously mentioned Stanley Grahame , the crew of a ship which the hero is a part of, cheers when the announcement of hostilities towards another enemy is given to them. In addition, Hourihan argues that one of the most prominent such examples would be Peter Pan , published in 1904 (100). Here, the action of killing pirates is described as having fun and the bloody battle against the pirates is displayed as a children’s game (100). The idea that these ideals and tropes shaped the young boys’ attitude towards the conflicts and wars to come, is supported by Hourihan who argues: The boys who absorbed these glorifications of action and violence were ready for it when it came. Four years after “The Man from Snowy River” was published (^1) Who is described as being a native King, for no other reason than him being a white western male, in the stories by Astrid Lindgren.
‘Australian Horsemen went off to fight for the Empire against the Boers, reciting “The Man from Snowy River” on the troop ships at night. ( 101 ) For clarification, “The Man from Snowy River” is one of the most influential Australian poems with a traditional hero figure, mounted on his horse overcoming the Australian wilderness. Here, one can clearly see the practice of inspiring the white young boy to be the hero that the British Empire needed to keep its imperial dreams and identity alive. Höglund argues that the British Empire, which at the beginning of the 1900´s were at war with the Boer in South Africa, were losing face because of the struggle of this conflict, leading many countries to doubt the military strength of Britain, as well as the moral values of the Empire. (42). Thusly, the moral values and rhetoric that were being used to justify war were suddenly questioned in light of the mining business that could be had after the war was supposedly won. Here, the motive for the conflict, which was proclaimed to be noble and honest for the benefit of the Empire, was criticized for being a mask for greed. Höglund argues that the British Imperialism did not die with the war, but there was a shift to a more defensive stance (46). Suddenly, the focus no longer was on expanding the borders of the British empire, but rather defending them. (47). This called for a “new” type of hero. In his book Heroes' Twilight: A Study of the Literature of the Great War , Bernard Bergonzi argues that in the final few years of the nineteenth century, when the Boer War occurred, there was a period of self-assertive imperialism, during which British writers were increasingly aware of the “martial and heroic virtues” (16). After years of relative peace, with only a small percentage of the population having experienced combat, the myth of the white male hero also reshaped the battle in which he fought. Invasion novels became popular reading. Some had the motive of opening the eyes
Creation of Modern Masculinity that even though power over others was a key aspect of the character of the British gentleman: The British Empire did not allow such power full play; it had to be coupled with self- control and the restraint of reckless impulses. Such self-restraint was a key attribute of the masculine stereotype … a true man must know how to master his passions. The British Empire, in places such as the Indian subcontinent, became an arena in which to test and reinforce the Victorian character. (Mosse 15) Moreover, Mosse discusses that this “quiet strength” should not conflict with virtues such as fair play, harmony and order (15). The concept of the gentleman is again found in the works of Hourihan, who argues that these values were integrated into literature of the time. In this context, the concept of the gentleman suggests education and well-behaved and polite manners (63). Because of this, the concept of the gentleman carries with it a larger innate moral and intellectual superiority, which Hourihan argues is used to establish and secure the innate rank of hierarchy in the society of the time. Thusly, the concept of the gentleman is used to define good and evil, friends and enemies. The enemies of the hero are often rude, dirty, cocky, and in short everything that a gentleman is not. The innate message to the reader is therefore clear, those who are not gentlemen are inferior and most probably enemies. However, leaving the safety of society to earn glory and wealth for oneself and Britain was not for everyone. The “adventure” was usually reserved for middle and upper- class people. The First World War, however, gave many the chance to fight and earn “glory” for oneself, and the British empire. Moreover, this was not some small conflict in a distant land, but “Heroes in battle with heroes, and above them the wrathful gods” (Cramb 136 - 137 qtd. in Höglund 49). This idea of heroes in battle with heroes stems from the idea of a war
between gentlemen, where the stakes were moral and ideological rather than political and territorial. A gentleman’s war, which celebrated sportsmanship, carried the euphemism of war as a game. From this concept, the idea of war as a strengthening experience can be found on both sides. A young volunteer for the German army, Otto Braun, writes in his diary “I believe that this war is a challenge for our time and for each individual, a test by fire, that we may ripen into manhood, become men able to cope with the upcoming stupendous years and events” (Mosse 64). The concept of glory in death is not only shown between the lines of imperialist writers such as Cramb, but in action at the beginning of the conflict. In the British army as well as the French, these ideas ran hot. French officers stood up under machine-gun and shellfire, sacrificing their lives for nothing more than the idea that an officer does not take cover, but stands his ground. In the British Expeditionary Force, the same ideals about valiant combat ran high. In his study Awarded for Valour: A History of the Victoria Cross and the Evolution of British Heroism , Melwin Charles Smith refers to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Reppington who said about Mons, and the impending fight with the Germans in a report “Glorious country for fighting in, glorious weather, and a glorious cause. What Soldier could ask for more?” (111). The BEF was an army compiled of one of the most drilled and trained groups of soldiers in the world. Many of them were combat-tested and veterans from different conflicts and wars. Consequently, Smith argues in his work that these professional soldiers carried with them many of the Victorian ideals of masculinity and that of the hero (111). These soldiers had fought mostly colonial wars however, and when put up against the weaponry of a modern foe, the ranks thinned quickly. Smith argues that “The Victorian Army died in the mud of Flanders. With it died the Victorian ideals of heroism” (111).
