Publishers, Readers and the Great War - Literature and Memory since 1918

Literature is at the heart of popular understandings of the First World War in Britain, and has perpetuated a popular memory of the conflict centred on disillusionment, horror and futility. This book examines how and why literature has had this impact, exploring the role played by authors, publishers and readers in constructing the memory of the war since 1918. It demonstrates that publishers were as influential as authors in shaping perceptions of the conflict, and it provides a detailed analysis of critical and popular responses to war books, tracing the evolution of readers'' attitudes to the war between 1918 and 2014. By exploring the cultural legacy of the war from these two previously overlooked perspectives, Vincent Trott offers fresh insights regarding the emergence of a collective memory of the First World War in Britain.Drawing on a broad range of primary source material, including publishers'' correspondence, dust jackets, adverts, book reviews and diary entries, and examining canonical authors such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Vera Brittain alongside long-forgotten texts and more recent autobiographical works by Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, provides a rich and nuanced analysis of the climate within which First World War literature was written, published and received since 1918.>

Product details

• Authors: Vincent Trott, Vincent (The Open University Trott, Trott Vincent
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9781474291491
• ISBN: 978-1-4742-9149-1
• No. of pages: 288
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; European History, English, First World War, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, United Kingdom, Great Britain, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, Social and cultural history, c 1910 to c 1919, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, General and world history, c 1914 to c 1918 (including WW1), Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Publishing industry and journalism, Publishing industry & book trade, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / World War I