David Williams - Media, Memory, and the First World War

MEDIA, MEMORY, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

MCGILL-QUEENS STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone

1 Problems of Cartesianism Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis

2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity Gerald A. Press

3 Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid: Two Common-Sense Philosophers Louise Marcil-Lacoste

4 Schiller, Hegel, and Marx: State, Society, and the Aesthetic Ideal of Ancient Greece Philip J. Kain

5 John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England Charles B. Schmitt

6 Beyond Liberty and Property: The Process of Self-Recognition in Eighteenth-Century Political Thought J.A.W. Gunn

7 John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind Stephen H. Daniel

8 Coleridge and the Inspired Word Anthony John Harding

9 The Jena System, 18045: Logic and Metaphysics G.W.F. Hegel Translation edited by John W. Burbidge and George di Giovanni Introduction and notes by H.S. Harris

10 Consent, Coercion, and Limit: The Medieval Origins of Parliamentary Democracy Arthur P. Monahan

11 Scottish Common Sense in Germany, 17681800: A Contribution to the History of Critical Philosophy Manfred Kuehn

12 Paine and Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection David A. Wilson

13 Descartes and the Enlightenment Peter A. Schouls

14 Greek Scepticism: Anti-Realist Trends in Ancient Thought Leo Groarke

15 The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought Donald Wiebe

16 Form and Transformation: A Study in the Philosophy of Plotinus Frederic M. Schroeder

17 From Personal Duties towards Personal Rights: Late Medieval and Early Modern Political Thought, 13001650 Arthur P. Monahan

18 The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel Allwill Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Translated and edited by George di Giovanni

19 Kierkegaard as Humanist: Discovering My Self Arnold B. Come

20 Durkheim, Morals and Modernity W. Watts Miller

21 The Career of Toleration: John Locke, Jonas Proast, and After Richard Vernon

22 Dialectic of Love: Platonism in Schillers Aesthetics David Pugh

23 History and Memory in Ancient Greece Gordon S. Shrimpton

24 Kierkegaard as Theologian: Recovering My Self Arnold B. Come

25 An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland: The Career of Sir Archibald Alison Michael Michie

26 The Road to Egdon Heath: The Aesthetics of the Great in Nature Richard Bevis

27 Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Bhme: Theosophy Hagiography Literature Paolo Mayer

28 Enlightenment and Community: Lessing, Abbt, Herder, and the Quest for a German Public Benjamin W. Redekop

29 Jacob Burckhardt and the Crisis of Modernity John R. Hinde

30 The Distant Relation: Time and Identity in Spanish-American Fiction Eoin S. Thomson

31 Mr Simsons Knotty Case: Divinity, Politics, and Due Process in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland Anne Skoczylas

32 Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: George Campbell in the Eighteenth Century Jeffrey M. Suderman

33 Contemplation and Incarnation: The Theology of Marie-Dominique Chenu Christophe F. Potworowski

34 Democratic Legitimacy: Plural Values and Political Power F.M. Barnard

35 Herder on Nationality, Humanity, and History F.M. Barnard

36 Labeling People: French Scholars on Society, Race, and Empire, 18151848 Martin S. Staum

37 The Subaltern Appeal to Experience: Self-Identity, Late Modernity, and the Politics of Immediacy Craig Ireland

38 The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond Stephen J.A. Ward

39 The Recovery of Wonder: The New Freedom and the Asceticism of Power Kenneth L. Schmitz

40 Reason and Self-Enactment in History and Politics: Themes and Voices of Modernity F.M. Barnard

41 The More Moderate Side of Joseph de Maistre: Views on Political Liberty and Political Economy Cara Camcastle

42 Democratic Society and Human Needs Jeff Noonan

43 The Circle of Rights Expands: Modern Political Thought after the Reformation, 1521 (Luther) to 1762 (Rousseau) Arthur P. Monahan

44 The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament Janet Ajzenstat

45 Finding Freedom: Hegels Philosophy and the Emancipation of Women Sara MacDonald

46 When the French Tried to Be British: Party, Opposition, and the Quest for Civil Disagreement, 18141848 J.A.W. Gunn

47 Under Conrads Eyes The Novel as Criticism Michael John DiSanto

48 Media, Memory, and the First World War David Williams

DAVID WILLIAMS

McGill-Queens University Press 2009
ISBN 978-0-7735-3507-7

Legal deposit second quarter 2009
Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from the Office of Research Services and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Manitoba.

McGill-Queens University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Williams, David, 1945

Media, memory, and the First World War / David Williams.

(McGill-Queens studies in the history of ideas 48)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7735-3507-7

1. World War, 19141918 Motion pictures and the war.
2. Memory History. 3. War and literature. 4. Motion pictures
and literature. 5. Literature, Modern 20th century History
and criticism. I. Title. II. Series.

D522.23.W54 2009 791.43658 C2008-907352-5

This book was typeset by Interscript in 10.5/13 Sabon.

In memory of

PTE J. MORRIS WILLIAMS, 6970

1st Infantry Battalion, Western Ontario
d. 22 April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres

PART THREE THE END OF THE BOOK
AND THE BEGINNING OF CINEMA

PART FOUR PHOTO / PLAY:
SEEING TIME AND (HEARING) RELATIVITY

7 Photographic Memory: A Force of Interruption
in The Wars

8 A Play of Light: Dramatizing Relativity in R. H. Thomsons
The Lost Boys

PART FIVE VIRTUAL PRESENCES:
HISTORY IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE

9 Electronic Memory: A New Homeric Mode on History
Television

Once again, I begin by thanking friends and colleagues in the Indian Association for Canadian Studies, who made up the first audience for portions of this monograph. Dr Jameela Begum and Dr B. Hariharan of the University of Kerala invited me to address a large audience at the Institute for English Studies on 15 February 2007, many of whom offered helpful comments on the photography chapter. Two days later, Dr Roopkumar Balasingh, Head of English, who had written his Ph.D. thesis on my novels, welcomed my wife and me to Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli, where a large crowd from three Tamil Nadu universities listened on a Saturday afternoon to the chapter on