the Myth of the Great War
the Myth of the Great War

Lost in history

Introduction: being lost The idea that the Great War produced a ‘lost generation’ of disillusioned and deeply traumatised men, probably represents the cornerstone of the Myth of the War.[1] According to the Myth, this was the generation, born mainly at the end of the Victorian era, who marched naively off …

Brexit as trauma narrative

In my previous post on Brexit I made reference to what Samuel Hynes has described as the ‘Myth of the (Great) War’.  This is the now widely accepted idea that one of the main legacies of the First World War was a lost, disillusioned and traumatised generation for whom all …

The Poetics of the Great War

Introduction: a war imagined In the introduction to his book on the First World War and English Culture Samuel Hynes briefly but succinctly summaries what he calls the Myth of the War: A brief sketch of that collective narrative of significance would go something like this: a generation of innocent …