The Great War: From Memory to History

by Kellen Kurschinski (Editor), Steve Marti (Editor), Alicia Robinet (Editor), Matt Symes (Editor), Jonathan F. Vance (Editor)

Overview

The Great War: From Memory to History offers a new look at the multiple ways the Great War has been remembered and commemorated through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Drawing on contributions from history, cultural studies, film, and literary studies this collection offers fresh perspectives on the Great War and its legacy at the local, national, and international levels. More importantly, it showcases exciting new research on the experiences and memories of “forgotten” participants who have often been ignored in dominant narratives or national histories.

Contributors to this international study highlight the transnational character of memory-making in the Great War’s aftermath. No single memory of the war has prevailed, but many symbols, rituals, and expressions of memory connect seemingly disparate communities and wartime experiences. With groundbreaking new research on the role of Aboriginal peoples, ethnic minorities, women, artists, historians, and writers in shaping these expressions of memory, this book will be of great interest to readers from a variety of national and academic backgrounds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771120500
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2015
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Kellen Kurschinski received his Ph.D. in history from McMaster Universityin 2014. His research examines disability in the aftermath of the Great War.

Steve Marti is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Delaware. His dissertation examines the relationship between identity and voluntary contributions to the war effort in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Alicia Robinet is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of English at Western University.

Matt Symes has worked and taught extensively on the history of war and memory and is co-author of five battlefield guidebooks, including Canadian Battlefields 1915–1918: A Visitor’s Guide. Symes was co-editor (with Geoffrey Hayes and Mike Bechthold) of Canada and the Second World War: Essays in Honour of Terry Copp.

Jonathan F. Vance teaches history at Western University. He is the author of many works, including Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain and Two World Wars (2011).

Table of Contents

Table of Contents for
The Great War: From Memory to History, edited by Kellen Kurschinski, Steve Marti, Alicia Robinet, Matt Symes, and Jonathan F. Vance

Introduction

Section One - Memory and Making Narratives

Canon Fodder - The Canadian Canon and the Erasure of Great War Narratives | Zachary Abram

Too Close to History - Major Charles G.D. Roberts, the Canada in Flanders Series, and the Writing of Wartime Documentary | Thomas Hodd

State War Histories - "An Atom of Interest in an Ocean of Apathy" | Kimberly J. Lamay

The Great War in Detective Fiction | Marzena Sokolowska-Paryz

"Backstabbing Arabs" and "Shirking Kurds" - History, Nationalism, and Turkish Memory of the First World War | Veysel Simsek

Men of Suvla - Empire, Masculinities, and Gallipoli's Legacy in Ireland and Newfoundland | Jane McGaughey

History Trumps Memory - The Strange Case of Sir Richard Turner | William F. Stewart

Section Two - Rediscovering and Rewriting Memory

The Names of the Dead - "Shot at Dawn" and the Politics of Remembrance | Bette London

Loyal and Submission - Contested Discourses on Aboriginal War Service, 1914-1939 | Brian MacDowall

"Kitchener's Tourists" - Voices from Great War Hospital Ships | Carol Acton

The Forgotten Few - Quebec and the Memory of the First World War | Geoff Keelan

"Loyal until Death" - Memories of African Great War Service for Germany | Dan Bullard

The Enemy at Home - Defining Enemy Aliens in Ontario during the Great War | Mary Chaktsiris

Section Three - Seeing and Feeling Memory

The Battles of the Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927) and the Struggle for the Cinematic Image of the Great War | Mark Connelly

"Can One Grow Used to Death?" - Deathbed Scenes in Great War Nurses' Narratives | Alice Kelly

Kitsch, Commemoration, and Mourning in the Aftermath of the Great War | Mark A.R. Facknitz

"Ask Him if He'll Drink a Toast to the Dead" - The Cinematic Flyer-Hero and British Memories of the Great War in the Air, 1927-39 | Robert Morley

Otto Dix and the Great War - Reality, Memory, and the Construction of Identity in The Trench (1923) and the Portfolio The War (1924) | Michèlle Wijegoonaratna

Contributor's Biographies

Index

Editorial Reviews

[These essays] are valuable studies of the memory and history of the First World War. 

H-War - Alex Nordlund