Format:
1 online resource (235 pages)
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Illustrationen
ISBN:
9783031340512
Content:
This book explores how humorous depictions of the Great War helped to familiarise, domesticate and tame the conflict. In contrast to the well-known First World War literature that focuses on extraordinary emotional disruption and the extremes of war, this study shows other writers used humour to create a gentle, mild amusement, drawing on familiar, popular genres and forms used before 1914. Emily Anderson argues that this humorous literature helped to transform the war into quotidian experience. Based on little-known primary material uncovered through detailed archival research, the book focuses on works that, while written by celebrated authors, tend not to be placed in the canon of Great War literature. Each chapter examines key examples of literary texts, ranging from short stories and poetry, to theatre and periodicals. In doing so, the book investigates the complex political and social significance of this tame style of humour. Emily Anderson is Associate Lecturer in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests are in humour and whimsy in British literature, focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
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Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Chapter 1: Introduction: '[A]s in most war fiction, humour predominates' -- Defining Humour -- Humour in the Field of Great War Studies -- The Scope of Humour in British First World War Literature -- References -- Chapter 2: Humour and Britishness During the Great War: 'If a man brings us a joke, we require to be satisfied of its durability' -- The Roots of British Wartime Humour -- 'Jokes Should Be Taxed in England like Opium in China': The Britishness of Humour as a Minor Feeling -- The Boundaries of British Humour -- References
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Chapter 3: The Domestication of Death: 'There are lots of jokes' -- 'What Did I Say About That Face?' Death Comes Home in A Well-Remembered Voice -- 'There Once Was a Man in a Trench': Death in Trench-Newspaper Limericks and Nursery Rhyme Parodies -- 'Let Us Be Our Ordinary Selves, Won't You?': Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 4: Class and Social Structure: 'It is not taken seriously' -- 'It's a Great Leveller This Army': Class, Revolution, Oblique Joking -- 'I've Only Learnt Things Like Greek and Latin and French and Spanish': Upper Class Women in War
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'It Turns Out to be No Bomb [...] Recommended for License': Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 5: War and the Depiction of Gender: 'Let us hope for the best and assume that he is dead' -- 'You'll Find Him Different': Wartime Masculinity and Male Relationships -- 'They Are Having the Time of Their Lives, Probably Being Quite Useful too': War and Roles for Women -- 'We Must All Do More: It Being War time and All That': Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 6: The War and the Domestic Sphere: 'That perpetual sense of the ridiculous'
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9783031340505
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Anderson, Emily, 1977 - Humour in British First World War literature Cham, : Palgrave Macmillan, 2023 ISBN 3031340507
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9783031340505
Language:
English
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