Rebecca West and the feminine writing of the First War in The Return Of The Soldier

Authors

  • Denise Borille PUC Minas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/1679849X44354

Keywords:

World War I, Women Writing of War Trauma, Trauma Theory.

Abstract

It is the aim of this paper to analyze women writing of war trauma in Rebecca West's The Return of The Soldier (1918), and to address, more specifically, how both men and women suffered from the trauma inflicted by World War I. Chris Baldry is a soldier who returns from the war front struck by traumatic amnesia, which prevents him from remembering what his life was like before the war. Back home, he finds three women living in his house: his wife, Kitty, whom he does not recognize; Chris's ex-lover, Margaret, who still loves him; and, finally, his cousin, Jenny. In symbolic terms, it is possible to think that the house where the three women live in with Chris represents a kind of "laboratory", a locus from which they observe World War I and formulate their views on this conflict.

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Author Biography

Denise Borille, PUC Minas

Graduação em Letras pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (1996), mestrado em literaturas de língua inglesa pela mesma instituição (2008) e doutorado em literaturas de língua portuguesa na Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (2016), onde adquiriu e consolidou sua experiência profissional como professora de ensino superior. Foi bolsista da CAPES de doutorado-sanduíche na Kingston University London (2015).

References

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GINZBURG, Carlo. “Micro-história: duas ou três coisas que sei a respeito”. O fio e os rastros: verdadeiro, falso, fictício. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2006, pp. 249-279.

HIGONNET, Margaret R. Lines of Fire: Women War Writers of World War I. New York: Plume, 1999.

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KLINKENBORG, Verlyn. Introdução. The Return of the Soldier. By Rebecca West. New York: Random House, 2004, pp. xv-xxi.

WEST, Rebecca. The Return of the Soldier. New York: Random House, 2004.

WHITEHEAD, Anne. Trauma Fiction. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Published

2020-09-06

How to Cite

Borille, D. (2020). Rebecca West and the feminine writing of the First War in The Return Of The Soldier. Literatura E Autoritarismo, (24). https://doi.org/10.5902/1679849X44354