World War I Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the four texts, "A Dead Boche" by Robert Graves, "The Soldier" by Rupert Brook, and Vera Brittain's "Letters from a Lost Generation," are typical of World War I literature. It analyzes the three texts in terms of language form and structure and the way the writers use the genre of their choice to express their thoughts and feelings. The influence of the time of composition and the significance of the gender of the writer is also discussed.

From the Paper:

"Graves employs various literary techniques in A Dead Boche to emphasize the brutal reality of the First World War. By addressing the poem to the reader in the first stanza, "To you" the reader becomes instantly involved with the poem and is forced to reconsider their attitude to war and to confront the real atrocities of a truly total war. By 1916 many soldiers were disillusioned by the war and particularly by the continuing demand for patriotic poetry which talked of "valor," "honor" and "sacrifice" and which in the style of the Victorian poets like Alfred Lord Tennyson, glorified death with chivalric language. Graves speaks directly to those who think of war with ideas of "blood and fame" and to those who, for a long time succeeded in ignoring the horrible reality of the war in their willful ignorance and hypocrisy."

More papers on World War I Literature:

• Book Review # 96368 : "World War I Literature"
• Book Review # 117763 : "World War I and Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 1667 : "The Beginning of Modernism in Literature After World War I"

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