St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • English (School of)
  • English
  • English Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • English (School of)
  • English
  • English Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • English (School of)
  • English
  • English Theses
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

'This may be my war after all' : the non-combatant poetry of W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, and Stevie Smith

Date
26/06/2018
Author
Lynch, Éadaoín
Supervisor
Mackay, Peter
Funder
Buchanan Scholarship
University of St Andrews. School of English. Professor A F Falconer PhD Scholarship
Keywords
War
War poetry
Second World War
First World War
Second World War poetry
Poetic representation
Non-combatant
Non-combatant poetry
Poetic influence
War experience
Historiography
Poetic tone
Ethics of representation
War representation
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
This research aims to illuminate how and why war challenges the limits of poetic representation, through an analysis of non-combatant poetry of the Second World War. It is motivated by the question: how can one portray, represent, or talk about war? Literature on war poetry tends to concentrate on the combatant poets of the First World War, or their influence, while literature on the Second World War tends to focus on prose as the only expression of literary war experience. With a historicist approach, this thesis advances our understanding of both the Second World War, and our inherited notions of ‘war poetry,’ by parsing its historiography, and investigating the role critical appraisals have played in marginalising this area of poetic response. This thesis examines four poets as case studies in this field of research—W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, and Stevie Smith—and evaluates them on both their individual explorations of poetic tone, faith systems, linguistic innovations, subversive performativity, and their collective trajectory towards a commitment to represent the war in their poetry. The findings from this research illustrate how too many critical appraisals have minimised or misrepresented Second World War poetry, and how the poets responded with a self-reflexivity that bespoke a deeper concern with how war is remembered and represented. The significance of these findings is breaking down the notion of objective fact in poetic representations of war, which are ineluctably subjective texts. These findings also offer insight into the ‘failure’ of poetry to represent war as a necessary part of war representation and prompt a rethinking of who has the ‘right’ experience—or simply the right—to talk about war.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Embargo Date: 2023-05-10
Embargo Reason: Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Electronic copy restricted until 10th May 2023
Collections
  • English Theses
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16566

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter