The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

Adopting the term "new death," which was used to describe the unprecedented and horrific scale of death caused by the First World War, Pearl James uncovers several touchstones of American modernism that refer to and narrate traumatic death. The sense of paradox was pervasive: death was both sanctified and denied; notions of heroism were both essential and far-fetched; and civilians had opportunities to hear about the ugliness of death at the front but often preferred not to. By historicizing and analyzing the work of such writers as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, the author shows how their novels reveal, conceal, refigure, and aestheticize the violent death of young men in the aftermath of the war. These writers, James argues, have much to say about how the First World War changed death's cultural meaning.

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The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

Adopting the term "new death," which was used to describe the unprecedented and horrific scale of death caused by the First World War, Pearl James uncovers several touchstones of American modernism that refer to and narrate traumatic death. The sense of paradox was pervasive: death was both sanctified and denied; notions of heroism were both essential and far-fetched; and civilians had opportunities to hear about the ugliness of death at the front but often preferred not to. By historicizing and analyzing the work of such writers as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, the author shows how their novels reveal, conceal, refigure, and aestheticize the violent death of young men in the aftermath of the war. These writers, James argues, have much to say about how the First World War changed death's cultural meaning.

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The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

by Pearl James
The New Death: American Modernism and World War I
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The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

The New Death: American Modernism and World War I

by Pearl James

Overview

Adopting the term "new death," which was used to describe the unprecedented and horrific scale of death caused by the First World War, Pearl James uncovers several touchstones of American modernism that refer to and narrate traumatic death. The sense of paradox was pervasive: death was both sanctified and denied; notions of heroism were both essential and far-fetched; and civilians had opportunities to hear about the ugliness of death at the front but often preferred not to. By historicizing and analyzing the work of such writers as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, the author shows how their novels reveal, conceal, refigure, and aestheticize the violent death of young men in the aftermath of the war. These writers, James argues, have much to say about how the First World War changed death's cultural meaning.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813934099
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication date: 04/22/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 272
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Pearl James, Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, is editor of Picture This: World War I Posters and Visual Culture.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 "Clean" Wounds and Modern Women: World War I in One of Ours 29

2 The Story Nick Can't Tell: Trauma in The Great Gatsby 63

3 Regendering War Trauma and Relocating the Abject: Catherine Barkley's Death 119

4 The Missing of Sartoris 160

Conclusion: New Death, Blood Simple 199

Notes 207

Bibliography 235

Index 251

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Literature
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Literature
Literary Criticism
American Literature
General & Miscellaneous American Literature - Literary Criticism
American Literature * Literary Criticism

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