Dissertation Information for Elizabeth Townsend NAME: - Elizabeth Townsend
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1998)
ADVISORS: - Robert Wohl
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Joyce Oldham Appleby - Anne K. Mellor
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Reconstructing Vera Brittain's war generation: An experiment in comparative biography
Abstract: Reconstructing Vera Brittain's War Generation as a biography offered the opportunity to build a new layer upon the established cultural and feminist historiography of the First World War. By challenging the outdated use of binary categorizations, and testing existing generational definitions, I set out to paint a new portrait of meaning. Such a mediation is first conveyed through, and grounded in, the microhistorial case of Vera Brittain, the most recognized and most popular woman war writer, and whose memoir, from its publication, stood as the only female voice invited into the World War I canon. Surrounding her story, the voices of others assist in the reevaluation of myth/memory/meaning, identity construction, and the issue of canonicity to better understand what it means to be part of the war generation.
This work tells the story of war from two vantage points: the war of an individual, and the war of a generation. By analyzing Vera Brittain's war experiences, it seeks to microscopically understand the experience of the First World War, and how small events translated into memory, myth, and meaning. By placing her experiences within the context of others, it sets out to paint a portrait of the war generation. It revises the traditional story of war by removing overly simplistic and arbitrary binary categories. It tests the canonized version of a generation, by delving into their works beyond the war, and analyzing non-canonized versions of the story, specifically targeting the lives and writings of Erich Maria Remarque, R. C. Sherriff, Edmund Blunden, Ernst Hemingway, Mary Lee, Agatha Christie, Robert Graves, Irene Rathbone, Helen Z. Smith, Dorothy Sayers. It sets out to recreate the experiences of Vera Brittain and the lives around her. Taken together in its entirety, the work is the tale of her life, her writings, her generation, her world. It seeks to build a new layer of First World War scholarship upon the works of Paul Fussell, Samuel Hynes, Robert Wohl and others.
| |
MPACT Scores for Elizabeth Townsend A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-10-08 21:55:15
Advisors and Advisees Graph
generating graph, please reload |