The Great War and Modern Memory

by Paul Fussell

Book Overview

In this classic work, Paul Fussell illuminates the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, focusing primarily on the literary means by which The Great War has been remembered, conventionalized, and mythologized. Drawing on the work of important wartime poets such as David Jones and Wilfred Owen, on the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden, and on numerous other personal records housed in the Imperial War...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195019180
• ISBN13: 9780195019186
• Release Date: July 1975
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

an indispensable reference for those interested in modernism

Paul Fussell has created a significant study on the effects of World War I on the human consciousness and attitudes. This book is an especially useful tool for students of modern literature, as Fussell cites many instances in which the impact of the war was and, in some cases still is, reflected in the literature. Fussell's arguments include one explaining the modern distrust of language, especially abstract nouns. Central to this argument is Hemingway's famous quotation from A FAREWELL TO ARMS in which he states, "abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments, and the dates." Fussell explores the War's myriad of adverse effects and skillfully reports his conclusions on their effects on the modern state of being in this study which is an indispensable tool for those interested in modern studies.