The Remembered Dead: Poetry, Memory and the First World War

Description

The Remembered Dead explores the ways poets of the First World War - and later poets writing in the memory of that war - address the difficult question of how to remember, and commemorate, those killed in conflict. It looks closely at the way poets struggled to meaningfully represent dying, death, and the trauma of witness, while responding to the pressing need for commemoration. The authors pay close attention to specific poems while maintaining a strong awareness of literary and philosophical contexts. The poems are discussed in relation to modernism and myth, other forms of commemoration (such as photographs and memorials), and theories of cultural memory. There is fresh analysis of canonical poets which, at the same time, challenges the confines of the canon by integrating discussion of lesser-known figures, including non-combatants and poets of later decades. The final chapter reaches beyond the war's centenary in a discussion of one remarkable commemoration of Wilfred Owen.

Sally Minogue is a retired academic who is still writing. She has taught in both further and higher education. On retirement she was Principal Lecturer in English Literature at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her research interests have been eclectic, stretching from Philip Sidney's poetry to Alan Sillitoe's fiction. A common theme has been an interest in the demotic, as reflected both in colloquial language, and in the representation of working class life, in literature. This has informed her work with Andrew Palmer on First World War poetry. Andrew Palmer is Principal Lecturer in Modern Literature at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, where he has taught since 1996. He holds a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His teaching and research are focused on the literature of the twentieth century. With Sally Minogue, he has published, in addition to this book, articles on modern fiction and poetry. He has also published papers on Ray Davies's seminal Kinks album, Arthur and the travel writing of Bruce Chatwin. He has lectured at the Universite Catholique de Lille under the aegis of the Erasmus Lifelong Learning Programme. He founded the M.A. in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University in 2003, and served as its Programme Director for eight years.

'The Remembered Dead is a study of 'the ways those who died in the First World War have been commemorated in poetry'. The authors find many new perspectives and plunge in with some close reading of Walt Whitman, immediately offering depth but also welcome breadth.' John Greening, The Times Literary Supplement