Overview

Comparing Grief in French, British and Canadian Great War Fiction (1977-2014) offers a comparative analysis of twenty-three First World War novels. Engaging with such themes as war trauma, facial disfigurement, women’s war identities, communal bonds, as well as the concepts of mourning and post-memory, Anna Branach-Kallas and Piotr Sadkowski identify the dominant trends in recent French, British and Canadian fiction about the Great War. Referring to historical, sociological, philosophical and literary sources, they show how, by both consolidating and contesting national myths, fiction continues to construct the 1914-1918 conflict as a cultural trauma, illuminating at the same time some of our most recent ethical concerns.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anna Branach-Kallas ,  Piotr Sadkowski
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   88
Weight:   0.541kg
ISBN:  

9789004364776

ISBN 10:   9004364773
Pages:   252
Publication Date:   19 July 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Faces  Between Stigmatisation and Sacralisation: The Officers’ Ward by Marc Dugain  From Destruction to Reconstruction: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young  Facial Disfigurement and Shell Shock: Tell by Frances Itani  Abjection and Precarity: The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre  Aversion and Masks: Toby’s Room by Pat Barker 2 Women  Maternal Pacifism: Dans la guerre by Alice Ferney  Grief and Betrayal: Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore  Gendered Disorder: My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young  Asymmetric Similarities: Deafening by Frances Itani  Empathetic Unsettlement: Les Fleurs d’hiver by Angélique Villeneuve 3 Communities  Egoism and Brutalisation: By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel  Adoptive Kinship: The Heroes’ Welcome by Louisa Young  Community of Memory: Broken Ground by Jack Hodgins  Canada Divided: The Draft Dodger by Louis Caron and A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin  Community of (Not)Seeing: In Desolate Heaven by Robert Edric 4 Mourners  Psychic Crypt: The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart  The Illness of Mourning: Toby’s Room by Pat Barker  The Cult of Mourning: The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre  Infinite Grief: Le Monument. Roman vrai by Claude Duneton 5 Post-Memory  An Intimate “Archaeology of Knowledge”: The Wars by Timothy Findley  Writing as the Act of Sepulchre: The Acacia by Claude Simon  A Family’s Compiègne Wagon: Fields of Glory by Jean Rouaud  Female Seekers: In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard and Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks  Homoerotic Post- Memory: Douze lettres d’amour au soldat inconnu by Olivier Barbarant Conclusion Bibliography Index

Reviews

""Significantly, in contrast to the prevailing analytical framework, Branach-Kallas and Sadkowski do not focus on literary representations of combat and front life, but on texts that depict the long-lasting aftermath of the war in order to investigate the psychological and social effects of the conflict and to inquire into why the war refuses to be buried in the past. Comparing Grief explores the “changed reality” after the Great War and analyses the cultural trauma produced by the war in France, Canada, and Britain, focusing on shell-shock and the ensuing disintegration of individual identity and communal bonds. "" - , Katarzyna Więckowska, in Anglica: An International Journal of English Studies, Vol. 27.3 (2018), pp. 249-255

Significantly, in contrast to the prevailing analytical framework, Branach-Kallas and Sadkowski do not focus on literary representations of combat and front life, but on texts that depict the long-lasting aftermath of the war in order to investigate the psychological and social effects of the conflict and to inquire into why the war refuses to be buried in the past. Comparing Grief explores the changed reality after the Great War and analyses the cultural trauma produced by the war in France, Canada, and Britain, focusing on shell-shock and the ensuing disintegration of individual identity and communal bonds. - , Katarzyna Wieckowska, in Anglica: An International Journal of English Studies, Vol. 27.3 (2018), pp. 249-255

Author Information

Anna Branach-Kallas, Ph.D., D. Litt., is Associate Professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. She has published monographs and over seventy articles on corporeality, diaspora, trauma and war, as well as postcolonial and comparative literature in English and French. Piotr Sadkowski, Ph.D., D. Litt., is Associate Professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. He has published a monograph and many articles on such topics as war, myth, migration, intertextuality and post-memory in francophone literatures.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions