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Manhood and War Making: The Literary Response to the Radicalization of Masculinity for the Purposes of WWI Propaganda

Hersh, Samuel Joseph
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1493915080610264

Abstract Details

2018, BA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
Through a combination of queer and feminist criticism, masculinity has been proven to have an ever-changing definition, one based on historical time and sociocultural influences. Throughout the Victorian era, only a certain form of manhood had social hegemony; this sense of masculinity stressed delicacy and a stately manner of sophistication that exceeded the ability of the lower classes to attain. Unfortunately for the Victorians, their definition of masculinity would soon be linked with effeminacy and the controversy surrounding the Oscar Wilde trials of the 1890s. Therefore, by the turn of the new century, masculinity was in a crisis. What ensued from this uncertainty was a radical redefinition of manhood. As the Victorians’ hold on hegemonic masculinity faltered, the middle class began to cast off what they saw as a restrictive and effeminate manhood. Public institutions to the populace itself all began promoting heartiness of character and virility as proper characteristics of a man. With the outbreak of World War One, this new definition of manhood was only cemented further by its appropriation into war propaganda. Britain, German, and American propaganda all used their countries’ new robust forms of manhood, radicalizing it in order to lure young men into enlisting. But the realities of the war broke this illusion of masculinity, leaving a generation of men destroyed; subsequently, a distinct sect of anti-war literature developed in in all three countries that sought to expose the destruction caused by this hypermasculine war lie. Through the use of historicism, critical theory, and literary analysis, I argue that America’s Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, and the war poetry of Britain’s Wilfred Own are all literary pieces of social dissent. Each author writes about the war, or war experience, that destabilizes the hegemonic form of masculinity used before and during the war, producing works of counter-propaganda aimed at the state and society as a whole. In doing so, they help dismantle larger systems of oppression and disseminate counter-cultural sentiments.
Kevin Floyd, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Suzanne Holt, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kimberly Winebrenner, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Charlene Schauffler, M.A. (Committee Member)
152 p.
Comparative Literature; Gender Studies; History; Literature; World History
literature; world war one; critical theory; cultural studies; masculinity; johnny got his gun; all quiet on the western front; wilfred owen

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hersh, S. J. (2018). Manhood and War Making: The Literary Response to the Radicalization of Masculinity for the Purposes of WWI Propaganda [Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1493915080610264

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hersh, Samuel. Manhood and War Making: The Literary Response to the Radicalization of Masculinity for the Purposes of WWI Propaganda. 2018. Kent State University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1493915080610264.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hersh, Samuel. "Manhood and War Making: The Literary Response to the Radicalization of Masculinity for the Purposes of WWI Propaganda." Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1493915080610264

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University Honors College and OhioLINK.