War Isn't the Only Hell

A New Reading of World War I American Literature

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book War Isn't the Only Hell by Keith Gandal, Johns Hopkins University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Keith Gandal ISBN: 9781421425115
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication: April 16, 2018
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Keith Gandal
ISBN: 9781421425115
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication: April 16, 2018
Imprint:
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from Johns Hopkins University Press

Cover of the book Reducing Gun Violence in America by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Social Networks and Popular Understanding of Science and Health by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Birds of Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Systematic Psychiatric Evaluation by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book The Collected Poetry of Mary Tighe by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Nudging Health by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Writings of the Luddites by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Fanny Hill in Bombay by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book When Someone You Know Is Living in a Dementia Care Community by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book The Other Four Plays of Sophocles by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Making Sense of IBS by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Blake's Agitation by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book And the Crooked Places Made Straight by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Civil-Military Relations and Shared Responsibility by Keith Gandal
Cover of the book Dealing with Darwin by Keith Gandal
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy