Writing the Great War / Comment Écrire La Grande Guerre?

For France the First World War, or Great War, was a war of national self-defence, but for Britain it was not. Does that mean that French literary treatments of this unimaginably destructive war were very different from British ones? Not necessarily - but much can be learned from considering both tra [...]
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For France the First World War, or Great War, was a war of national self-defence, but for Britain it was not. Does that mean that French literary treatments of this unimaginably destructive war were very different from British ones? Not necessarily - but much can be learned from considering both traditions side by side, something that is rarely done. The essays collected in this bilingual volume, by a range of scholars working on literature and history on both sides of the Channel, show that while the wider purposes of the war are striking for their absence in both French and British traditions, there are many common strands: realistic narratives of the trenches, humour as a safety-valve, imagination and creativity. Yet there are differences, too: for instance, there is plenty of French poetry about the war, but no real equivalent of the British war poets. The volume looks at iconic figures like Owen, Brooke, Barbusse, Apollinaire and Proust, but also at a number of lesser known writers, and includes a study of poetry of colour, recognising the active contribution of some four million non-Europeans to the war effort. The book includes a preface by the eminent war historian Sir Hew Strachan. Engagee dans une guerre defensive sur ses frontieres, la France connut une Grande Guerre bien differente de celle avec laquelle composerent ses allies britanniques. Faut-il en conclure que les deux nations furent amenees a produire des reponses au conflit radicalement differentes? Peut-on degager des traditions nationales ou des tendances transnationales ouvrant la voie a des comparaisons encore rarement esquissees par la critique litteraire? C'est le pari des contributions de ce volume bilingue, reunissant autour de la question: comment ecrire la Grande Guerre?, les articles de specialistes francophones et anglophones des domaines historique et litteraire. Il montre la variete des thematiques partagees par les deux traditions litteraires: recits realistes des tranchees, usage de l'humour comme d'un exutoire salutaire, imagination et creativite; et souligne la presence de differences notables, comme l'absence de mythification en France de la poesie de 14, pourtant elle-aussi produite en masse tout au long de la guerre. L'ouvrage, tout en donnant une place de choix aux ecrivains de premier ordre (Owen, Brooke, Barbusse, Apollinaire ou Proust), tente d'offrir quelque visibilite a un certain nombre d'auteurs moins connus, au nombre desquels des auteurs de couleur, a qui leur contribution a l'effort de guerre n'aura pas valu la reconnaissance litteraire attendue. La preface a ete redigee par Sir Hew Strachan, grand specialiste de l'histoire de la periode.