War Isn't the Only Hell - A New Reading of World War I American Literature (Hardcover)

A vigorous reappraisal of American literature inspired by the First World War. American World War I literature has long been interpreted as an alienated outcry against modern warfare and government propaganda. This prevailing reading ignores the US army's unprecedented attempt during World War I to assign men-except, notoriously, African Americans-to positions and ranks based on merit. And it misses the fact that the culture granted masculinity only to combatants, while the noncombatant majority of doughboys experienced a different alienation: that of shame. Drawing on military archives, current research by social-military historians, and his own readings of thirteen major writers, Keith Gandal seeks to put American literature written after the Great War in its proper context-as a response to the shocks of war and meritocracy. The supposedly antiwar texts of noncombatant Lost Generation authors Dos Passos, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cummings, and Faulkner addressed-often in coded ways-the noncombatant failure to measure up. Gandal also examines combat-soldier writers William March, Thomas Boyd, Laurence Stallings, and Hervey Allen. Their works are considered straight-forward antiwar narratives, but they are in addition shaped by experiences of meritocratic recognition, especially meaningful for socially disadvantaged men. Gandal furthermore contextualizes the sole World War I novel by an African American veteran, Victor Daly, revealing a complex experience of both army discrimination and empowerment among the French. Finally, Gandal explores three women writers-Katherine Anne Porter, Willa Cather, and Ellen La Motte-who saw the war create frontline opportunities for women while allowing them to be arbiters of masculinity at home. Ultimately, War Isn't the Only Hell shows how American World War I literature registered the profound ways in which new military practices and a foreign war unsettled traditional American hierarchies of class, ethnicity, gender, and even race.

General

Imprint:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	June 2018
Authors:	Keith Gandal
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	288
ISBN-13:	978-1-4214-2510-8
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > General Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Battles & campaigns Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War Books > History > American history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > History > World history > From 1900 > First World War Promotions
LSN:	1-4214-2510-6
Barcode:	9781421425108

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