The Literature of War, Part 1

New Historicist Criticism

What is New Historicist Criticism?• New Historicism attempts to interpret a work by

examining the historical and cultural context in which a work was created as well as the unique concerns that modern readers bring to historical texts.

• New Historicists are interested in primary sources that touch on issues that a work addresses such as contemporary (published at the same time as the work) newspaper articles, letters, studies, and other documents that shed light on how the culture that produced the work would have viewed it.

• New Historicists recognize that there are multiple cultural contexts that produce a reading of a work, and are interested in how these contexts work with (and sometimes against) each other.

What makes New Historicists Different from Other Critics Who Bring Historical Context into Their Analysis?

• New Historicists are much more likely to want to look at a broad cross section of attitudes and ideas about any given topic in a society. New Historicists are keenly aware of the fact that for much of history, the art and literature that has come down to us was produced by and for a small, elite segment of that society. This is why they are so interested in primary sources that illuminate views held by those who were not represented in that art and literature.

• For a New Historicists, understanding the conditions and attitudes of “everyday people” can shed light on ideologies and belief systems that are present in works of literature.

• New Historicists also tend to be more aware of themselves as people with a unique cultural context that might affect their reading of a work.

The Rejection of the “Progressive” Model of History

• New Historicists reject the old model of history as “progressive.” (This is the idea that “history is a story of things constantly getting better.”) History had long been presented to the public in this way.

• The New Historicists were some of the people who started saying things like, “Wait a second… telling the story of the British Empire as the glorious rise of a great nation neglects to mention the fact that Britain’s colonization of these other countries destroyed native cultures and institutionalized racism in a way that we’re still dealing with.”

• Or… “Telling the story of the American West as a continuous, inevitable, ‘taming of a savage land’ ignores a long, messy history of between the U.S. government and Native Americans that consisted of a lot of broken promises and a lot of suffering.”

What Questions do New Historicist Critics Ask?

• What issues in this work would have been particularly relevant to its original audience? What primary sources from the period might help us to understand this issue’s historical importance?

• How does this work respond to the dominant social and cultural assumptions of its time? Does it support or rebel against them? Does it critique them? Mock them? Question them?

• How do our own social and cultural assumptions affect our reading of this work?

“To Lucasta Going to the Wars” p. 564Context and Timeline

• Richard Lovelace was a strong supporter of the English monarchy at a time when it was terribly unpopular.

• Lovelace is considered a “Cavalier Poet”– Cavalier, which originally meant a soldier mounted on

horseback (hear the similarity to “cavalry”?) was originally an insulting term used for supporters of King Charles I, though they themselves adopted it and used it proudly.

– Cavalier poets are concerned with ideals of love, beauty, honor, and elegance. Unlike their contemporaries, the metaphysical poets, Cavalier poetry is straightforward and to the point.

Historical Context for “Lucasta” cont.

• “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” was written in 1640, and it reflects Lovelace’s experiences during a military campaign for Charles I that would eventually lead to the English Civil War.

• English Civil War began in October of 1642, and continued off and on for the next seven years.

• Charles was executed in January of 1649. He is the first and only king of England to be executed by order of Parliament.

Some portraits of Cavalier style

Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard painted by Anthony van Dyck, 1638

Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles.Another van Dyck portrait.

Richard Lovelace, circa 1650

What observations can we make about these “contemporary artifacts”? What might they tell you about the Lucasta poem? How do our own contemporary ideas about clothing, honor, and masculinity color our readings of these paintings and the poem?

Further Questions for “Lucasta” • Describe the author’s attitude toward war. How does it

connect with his attitude toward love? How are the two related?

• What 17th century cultural assumptions about war, love, and honor are evident in this poem?

• Based on what we know about the historical context of this poem, what do you think the original audience would have found most important in this poem?

• What reaction do you as a modern reader have to this poem? What cultural contexts account for the difference between your reaction and the original audience’s?

“Dulce et Decorum Est” p. 664Historical Context

• Wilfred Owen wrote what is widely considered to be some of the finest war poetry in English about his experiences in the First World War.

• Owen joined the armed forces 1915 out of a sense of patriotic obligation and very quickly underwent a transformation from patriotic, high-spirited young man to a disillusioned, war weary soldier.

• Owen survived most of the war, but was killed on November 4, 1918 at the age of 25, seven days before the Armistice agreement that signaled the end of the fighting.

Questions to Ask About the Propaganda Posters:

• What do you notice about the images on each poster?

• What attitude towards the war does each image seem to convey?

• What connections can you make between these images and any of the three poems we read for today, but especially “Dulce et Decorum Est”?

The woman holding the flag is Britannia, a female personification of the nation of Britain who appears often in patriotic art and literature. (The U.S. has one too. Her name is Columbia.)

The knight on the white horse is St. George, England’s Patron Saint, whose claim to fame was slaying a dragon. (Who might the dragon represent here?)

While the first posters emphasized the soldier’s participation in Britain’s “mythic” story, this one seems a bit more practical… What other differences do you notice?

The man in the top hat and the flag vest is John Bull. He is to Britain what Uncle Sam is to the United States.

This is perhaps one of the most straightforward of the posters. The man at the top is King George V, who reigned during WWI.

The posters in this slideshow, along with propaganda material from other countries, can be viewed in full at http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/british-ww1-propaganda-posters

Further context for “Dulce et Decoum Est”

• World War I saw the first use of such developments in modern warfare as the machine gun, airplanes, and chemical warfare (mustard gas and other nerve agents).

• An estimated 8.5 million soldiers died in the fighting, and that number does not include wounded and civilian deaths. The world had never seen anything like this in terms of the number of dead, and it earned WWI the title “The War to End All Wars.”

Questions for “Dulce et Decorum Est”

• Compare Owen’s attitude toward war to Lovelace’s. What traditionally held ideas about war and honor is Owen responding to?

• What is the significance of the quote that is used for the title and for the last two lines of the poem?

• What images in this poem are particularly striking to you? How might they have appeared to a public faced with modern warfare for the first time?

“The Man He Killed” and “The End and the Beginning”

• What contradiction exists in “The Man He Killed”? (p. 491) What is the author’s attitude toward this contradiction?

• Though “The Man He Killed” was published eighteen years before “Dulce et Decorum Est,” both of them seem to shared a skepticism about the “glory” of war. What other similarities do you see?

• The very title of “The End and the Beginning” (p. 670) suggests a pair of opposites. What other themes are being set against each other here?

• How is this, our most “modern” war poem so far, relate to the others we have read today? Do you notice any significant differences? What do you think they mean?