The Great War : images of reality in the French novel

Swallow, Andrew Bolton

Abstract

War destroys the sensibility of the mind yet paradoxically it can heighten emotion and perception. Although the Great War for Civilisation destroyed the youth of an entire generation, although it irrevocably scarred the face of modern French history, its repercussions were, nevertheless, deeply lodge in the country's subsequent literary output. A link emerged between war and literature formerly unknown, as many established writers became involved in the fighting and civilians temporarily transformed into soldiers gave vent to their feelings in a secondary war of words. This thesis investigates the merging of the real with the imaginary, the threading together of historical fact and literary technique. The Introduction places emphasis upon the final weeks of peace leading up to the outbreak of hostilities and the portrayal of these events in the French novel. Each chapter then deals with different aspects of trench warfare on the Western Front. In Chapter I, I consider the innocence and naivety with which men went to war, their failure to take the situation seriously, their curiosity, their refusal to fear. The traditional heroic and patriotic spirit that has romanticized war in the past, however is completely destroyed in Chapters II and III, as a different picture is painted by those who gained first-hand experience of the horrors of the Front. In Chapter IV the telling effects of these horrors upon the wretched mortals who, day after day, month after month, endured the most inhuman existence imaginable, are assessed, and the themes of death, depersonalization and dehumanization closely examined. The absurdity of war, both in the trenches and on the "home front", is dealt with in Chapters V and VI. Chapter VII focuses attention on the utter folly of a situation where nobody wanted to fight, to be killed, and yet where no-one dared to reuse the wishes of the politicians and commanding officers who continued to accelerate the "war effort" despite rising casualties. Chapter VI adopts a different viewpoint as shared by those who remained behind. The total breakdown in communication and understanding between soldiers and civilians is clearly depicted and the wedge driven between the two, strongly emphasized. The final chapter paintes quite a different picture of war, revealing the more positive, more enjoyable, more humerous [sic] aspects of life in the trenches. The Great War was not the war to end all wars, as had been hoped, indeed, it began a new pattern of fighting more devastating, more frightening than ever before. In conclusion, I pose the question whether 1918 brought final victory or merely a temporary cease fire, an anti-climax; attention is drawn to a possible fascinating comparison between the literature of the First World War and that of the Second World War, and to the recent revival in interest in the Great War which involvement in the Second World War has inevitably brought about. Nowadays, perhaps more than at any other time during the past 40 years, is the message of the "war novel" appropriate and meaningful. It failed to prevent the outbreak of hostilities in 1939; will it succeed in maintaining world peace in the future?

Citation

Swallow, A. B. (1989). The Great War : images of reality in the French novel. (Thesis). University of Hull. Retrieved from https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4222619

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 20, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2023
• Keywords: French
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4222619
• Additional Information: Department of French, The University of Hull
• Award Date: Mar 1, 1989