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10. WAR IN BRITISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE

Intro:

War: armed conflict between states, nations, or even parties. It always has a considerable

effect on culture therefore it is not surprising that it makes several appearances British-

American literary works. However, the attitude of the writer or of the characters towards war

usually differs.

1) The Battle of Maldon

Intro:

The Battle of Maldon took place in 991 AD in England. Maldon refers to a place where

Scandinavian raiders met the English defence force on the estuary of the Blackwater River,

near Maldon in Essex. The battle itself is not a strategic or important one. However, the

survival of the heroic poem means that this battle ranks as one of the best known Anglo-

Saxon battles.

The work:

An old English poem of uncertain date of composition. It is the chronicle of a failed attempt at

stopping the invading Vikings. Although parts of the poem are lost, it is a significant Old

English work as it provides a detailed description of contemporary landscape culture and

warfare.

The war:

The heroic leader Byrhtnoth leads his Anglo-Saxon men against the Vikings, and fight till

the last man standing. Regardless of the stock-character traitor who flees the battlefield, theAnglo-Saxons follow their leader to death. The fight is carefully depicted; even the

circumstances of the fate of several soldiers are mentioned.

Examples for contemporary warfare:

The Anglo-Saxons arrived on horse but fought on foot

Byrthnoth was not willing to pay tribute (they would rather fight: "We will pay you

with spear tips and sword blades)

Norse invaders and Norse raiders differed in purpose. The forces engaged by the

Anglo-Saxon were raiding to gather loot, rather than to occupy land for settlement.

Therefore, if Byrhtnoth's forces had kept the Vikings off by guarding the causeway or

by paying them off, Olaf would likely have sailed farther up the river or along thecoast, and raided elsewhere.

Byrhtnoth ordered his men to form a war-hedge, a wall of shields. It is a common

defensive formation.

A churl with his southern-made spear pierced Byrhtnoth. Byrhtnoth was wounded, but

not down. Byrhtnoth responds with a stab to the churl in the neck, and stabbed

another. Byrhtnoth was wounded again by another Viking. Then the heathen Vikings

slewed Byrhtnoth and both who stood by his side. The Vikings decapitated Byrhtnoth,

but left his golden sword by his side.

The Anglo-Saxon warrior Godric took Byrhtnoth's horse and fled (+ his 2 brothers,

Godwine & Godwig fled as well) = an act of shame The other Anglo-Saxonwarriors spoke words of nobility to stay and fight to the death.

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The hostage began to help the Anglo-Saxon warriors. Among Germanic people,

hostages of high rank generally fought on the side of the warriors who held them in

hostage.

Attitude towards war:

Although devastating, the war here is not the place of destruction, it is the setting by which

Byrhtnoth and his men are transformed into self-sacrificing heroes. Byrhtnoth decides to fight instead of paying tribute

He drives away their horses knowing that they will not win

Honor in battle: Byrhtnoth gives up strategic positions to let the Vikings to the

mainland to ensure an equal fight, although the Anglo-Saxons are outnumbered.

(just to be noted: the OE text uses the word ofermde, which does not necessarilymean excess of courage. Literally, it means having too much heart, and it may

also mean pride. Cf. bermutwhich can mean hubris & recklessness as well)

As a man with troops and weapons, it might be that Byrhtnoth had to allow the

Vikings ashore to protect others. (otherwise the Vikings would have sailed further andraided there)

In the Anglo-Saxon world, war is heroic, no one questions its rightfulness, it is part of their

lives, which they sacrifice even if defeat is granted.

2) Walt Whitman: The Wound-Dresser

This and other poems of Whitman (Civil War poems) constitute the first modern war poetry,

which turns away from celebrating the glories of battle to render starkly, even brutally, thephysical and emotional realities of war and its costs to human individuals.

As a tale told to the young, the poets memories act as an offering of wisdom and future

direction for healing the nation: not to remember the glory of battles won, but to remember

the pain that soldiers on both sides suffered, their sacrificial deaths, and the war wounds that

need loving healing.

The Soldiers:

The soldiers are sacrificial soldiers like the dying Christ, the suffering servant, except

that they have died to preserve the unity of the nation.

A few but clear allusions are made to the divine nature of the soldiers as Christ-like: the

soldiers priceless blood, the poet dressing a wound in the side, deep, deep, the

dying arms crossd on the wound-dressers neck.

The Wound-Dresser:

Walt Whitman decided to write his poem on the Civil war, from the perspective of a

wound dresser; this aspect of the poem is very important. Because he does this, he shifts

the focus from the heroic and courageous aspects of war to the suffering of the wounded

The wound-dresser is also a servant, the one who attends faithfully and humbly to the

greater suffering of the soldiers. The wound-dressers love goes as deep as that of the

soldiers love for country, for he desires to die instead of a boy.

Section 2 gives a view of the wound dresser as a soldier, steadfastly pressing onwardthrough the hospital tending the wounded amid horrible conditions.

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Image of his hinged knees: a physical, emotional, and spiritual symbol > quaking fear,

petition, utter weariness, humility, love, strength, and courage to go on are all fused

The poets attitude to the subject of war:

Use of language: action words that describe the battles are now replaced with those

which are more mundane (bandages, water, and sponge). The glorious memories of

fights fought so bravely and won are now compared to footprints which melt away onsand

Whitman brings the reader to a realisation that every casualty is a unique human

personality. Behind every one is a family, a loved one - a different story.

a gruesome poem that brings his readers face to face with the cruel realities of war

Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!/In mercy come quickly death is

desired but for an opposite reason to the one represented in The Battle of Maldon

(glory, honour)

Whitman considered himself a Wound-Dresser able to restore the bonds between

different types of Americans at such strongly divisive period as the Civil War.

Perceiving hospitals as microcosms of the entire nation, Whitman believed that, after thewar, those men would spread the principles they had learned (from him) to the rest of

society.

Whitman was one of the first writers to defy the conventional route and opt rather for the eye-

opening, horrific images of truth. Most of society had sugar-coated ideas of what the war

truly was, refusing to let themselves fathom what was really going on.

3) Wilfred Owen: Anthem for Doomed Youth (1917)

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,--

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen: was an English and Welsh poet and soldier, regarded by many as one of the

leading poets of the First World War his shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily

influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon ( a writer of satirical anti-war verse during WW I)

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theme: horror of war

dedicated to funeral rituals suffered by those families deeply affected by World War I

the sorrow of common soldiers in one of the bloodiest battles of the 20 th century

lament for young soldiers whose lives were unnecessarily lost in World War I

octave: full of sounds chaotic (rattle, bells, choirs, shrill, bugles)

scenery: Battlefield

1st cacophonic effect is due to the difference of sounds: anger of guns, rattle passing bells,

mourning (liturgical, ceremonial)

strange mixture of acoustic experience auditory imagination

sestet: full of visual components silent vision (candles, eyes)

scenery: Churchyard

2nd cacophonic effect is due to the muted sestet: candles, hands, eyes, flowers blindness

this blinding makes the vision muted slightness and sightless by the end

2 dooms: for those who die

for those who have to live on (they are the real doomed)

these two groups cannot meet anymore: they cannot establish a living relationship the outcome of the war can be perceived everything can be lost (sounds, light, objects, human

beings)

Conclusion:

War is inevitably tied to every culture. It has a thousand faces and different reputations. The

three works I have spoken about portray some of them a heroic battle to defend the

homeland, the bloody and painful side of fighting, the horror of the battlefield and a senseless

sacrifice of youth.

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