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CRISIS, SHELL-SHOCK, AND THE TEMPORALITY OF TRAUMA: CULTURAL MEMORY AND THE GREAT WAR COMBATANT EXPERIENCE IN OWEN, GRAVES, AND BARKER

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Date Issued:
2014
Abstract/Description:
The year 2014 will mark the centennial of the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. This historic anniversary will likely provoke several discussions from all fields in the humanities concerning the Great War's significance on contemporary culture through history, visual art, and in the case of this essay: literature. In light of this event, any serious discussion among scholars should undeniably begin with how the war continues to be represented today through a thorough, contemporary analysis of its many key literary texts. This thesis will examine, in this regard, how past and contemporary discourses in literary theory—primarily concerned with how an individual combatant subject attempts to construct and understand their own traumatic experiences through poetic and literary discourse—can continue to incite discussion on why literature of the Great War and its influential role in defining how it has come to be understood in our cultural memory remains relevant even today. Under the guiding influence of Paul Fussell's classic The Great War and Modern Memory, I will discuss how three important works—a poetry collection, a memoir, and a modern work of historical fiction—all contribute to how the war has become represented as a tragic rupture in history that reversed the idea of human progress and left an entire generation disillusioned in its aftermath, regardless of the historical veracity of this legacy. The texts I will be examining include: select poems of Wilfred Owen, Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves, and Regeneration by Pat Barker. In addition to this, I will conclude with an analysis of how a contemporary reading of these texts can contribute to a larger discussion of the crisis of historicity in our current post-modern cultural landscape.
Title: CRISIS, SHELL-SHOCK, AND THE TEMPORALITY OF TRAUMA: CULTURAL MEMORY AND THE GREAT WAR COMBATANT EXPERIENCE IN OWEN, GRAVES, AND BARKER.
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Name(s): Kelly, Dylan, Author
Grajeda, Anthony, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2014
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: The year 2014 will mark the centennial of the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. This historic anniversary will likely provoke several discussions from all fields in the humanities concerning the Great War's significance on contemporary culture through history, visual art, and in the case of this essay: literature. In light of this event, any serious discussion among scholars should undeniably begin with how the war continues to be represented today through a thorough, contemporary analysis of its many key literary texts. This thesis will examine, in this regard, how past and contemporary discourses in literary theory—primarily concerned with how an individual combatant subject attempts to construct and understand their own traumatic experiences through poetic and literary discourse—can continue to incite discussion on why literature of the Great War and its influential role in defining how it has come to be understood in our cultural memory remains relevant even today. Under the guiding influence of Paul Fussell's classic The Great War and Modern Memory, I will discuss how three important works—a poetry collection, a memoir, and a modern work of historical fiction—all contribute to how the war has become represented as a tragic rupture in history that reversed the idea of human progress and left an entire generation disillusioned in its aftermath, regardless of the historical veracity of this legacy. The texts I will be examining include: select poems of Wilfred Owen, Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves, and Regeneration by Pat Barker. In addition to this, I will conclude with an analysis of how a contemporary reading of these texts can contribute to a larger discussion of the crisis of historicity in our current post-modern cultural landscape.
Identifier: CFH0004557 (IID), ucf:45210 (fedora)
Note(s): 2014-05-01
B.A.
Arts and Humanities, Dept. of English
Bachelors
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Shell-Shock
Great War
World War One
Trauma
Cultural Memory
Memoir
Poetry
Historical Novel
Wilfred Owen
Robert Graves
Pat Barker
Strange Meeting
Dulce et Decorum Est
Spring Offensive
Exposure
Goodbye to All That
Regeneration
Regeneration Trilogy
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004557
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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