Cartographies of the Great War: Mapping Post-War Fiction

Frayn, Andrew

Abstract

Invited talk to the AHRC-funded network Alternate Spaces of the Great War.

This paper engages with the spaces of the Great War, particularly the Western Front, as spaces of modernity. The starting point is a quotation from Richard Aldington’s Death of a Hero (1929), which overlays the visual and physical language of the city onto the experience of the trenches. I look at previous attempts to map literature and the associated theories and seek to move away from a too-easy cartography of realist fiction and biography. I explore briefly some related theoretical issues and engage with the possibilities and problems of cartography in asking how we can try to map, for example, poetry or diachronic texts.
The focus then shifts to the efficacy of mapping texts to enhance the work of interpreting Great War Fiction. Firstly, we must find a way to parse the often uncertain boundary between fact and fiction in writing about the conflict; secondly, it is necessary to ask whether to map threatens to reduce the emotive impact of such texts and detract from the rapid shifts between pleasure and pain, tension and release that characterise the novels of the conflict.
Two case studies are used to explore these issues: I examine Cicely Hamilton’s William—An Englishman (1919) and Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End tetralogy (1924-8). Hamilton’s novel, marvellously cranky take on the links between socialism, suffragism, modern structures of power and warfare, is an attractive prospect to map. An idealistic and unfortunate newly-wed couple go from London to honeymoon in Belgium in July 1914 with predictable consequences. Their journeys can be mapped easily, but what can we learn from this? By contrast, Ford’s novels form a bigger challenge. The narrative shifts physically and chronologically, geographically and mentally. This mode is an important aspect of the narrative, so is it possible, desirable or necessary to represent it cartographically?
This is an exploratory paper, but I posit that works about the First World War resist ‘easy mapping’ of narrative. These can work for long narratives and stories with lower stakes, but not for instances where there is such import in the language and representation. Maps can still be revealing about the text if used creatively, though, and I invite further conversation about the ways this can be achieved.

Citation

Frayn, A. (2014, July). Cartographies of the Great War: Mapping Post-War Fiction. Paper presented at Alternate Spaces of the Great War, Plymouth University

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Alternate Spaces of the Great War
• Start Date: Jul 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2023