THE GREAT WAR AND WOMEN'S CONSCIOUSNESS The Great War and Women's Consciousness Images of Militarism and Womanhood in Women's Writings, 1914-64 CLAIRE M. TYLEE Lecturer in English Literature University of Málaga M MACMILLAN © Claire M. Tylee 1990 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1990 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Footnote Graphics, Warminster, Wilts British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Tylee, Claire M. 1946- The Great War and women's consciousness: images of militarism and womanhood in women's writings, 1914-64 1. English literature. Women writers, 1900- Critical studies I. Title 820.9'9287 ISBN 978-0-333-51403-0 ISBN 978-1-349-20454-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20454-0 Dedicated to my Heroines of the Past Edith Cavell Sylvia Pankhurst Virginia Woolf and to my heroines of the future Jessica and Hannah Matthew The purblind policy of shielding women against their will from a knowledge of truths, however unpleasant they may be, is disastrous not only for women, but for the community at large. Mrs St Clair Stobart, War and Women, 1913 Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements xi List of Plates xii Terminology and Abbreviations xv Introduction: 'We Will Remember'- 1964-89, 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Great War, 1914-18 1 1. The Heroic Pageantry of War- Journalism, Women War-Correspondents, 1914-16, and the Ideology of War 19 (Mildred Aldrich, May Sinclair, Mrs. StClair Stobart) 2. Mental Flannel- A Woman's Diary, 1913-16: Propaganda and the Construction of Consciousness 47 (Vera Brittain) 3. 'The Magic of Adventure'- The Western Front and Women's Tales About the War-Zone, 1915-16 75 (May Cannan, Katherine Mansfield, Ellen La Motte, Mary Borden) 4. 'Despised and Rejected'- Censorship and Women's Pacifist Novels of the First World War, 1916-18 103 (Mary Hamilton, Rose Macaulay, Rose Allatini) 5. Best-Sellers- Women's Best-Selling Novels, 1918-28 130 (May Sinclair, Cicely Hamilton, Rebecca West, Virginia Woolf, Radclyffe Hall) 6. Memoirs of a Generation- Women's Autobiographies and Fictionalised War Memoirs, 1929-33 184 (Enid Bagnold, Mary Borden, Evadne Price, Sylvia Pankhurst, Vera Brittain) vii Contents Vlll 7. 'Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things' -Women's Elegies, 1932-60 224 (H. D. [Hilda Doolittle], Pamela Hinkson, Antonia White) Conclusion: 'Forbidden Zone' -The Great War and Women's Myths 250 Appendices: 1. Dates of Significant Women Writers and their War-Writings 260 2. Extracts from The Defence of the Realm Act, 1914 262 Bibliography 263 fu~ ~ Preface One August, when I was a little girl of about six, my parents, my elder brother and I spent a day in Brighton with my grandparents. After lunch we went for a stroll along the Front. Out of the cloud of rules that floated above my head two were selected for attention: 'Walk properly, and don't keep asking "why?" all the time!' Then my mother and granny took my brother, who could be 'a bit of a handful', off in one direction, and I was left, most unusually, alone with my father and grandfather. Grandad, who was my mother's father, was strict and rather fierce. With a hand firmly grasped on either side, I concentrated on getting my small feet in their white socks and sandals to keep up with the large, polished shoes on both sides of me. All six feet strode down a flight of steps. Mine watchfully did not jump the last couple. At the bottom Grandad let go of my hand to go over to a rather shabby man selling matches from a tray around his neck. He was a long time. My father gazed out to sea, his hands carefully not in his pockets, 'a bad habit' my brother had been copying. My grand mother not being there to notice ('it's rude to stare at people'), I kept my eyes fixed on my grandfather. Like all his generation his back was extremely straight. He held himself upright and rather rigid. Now, from behind, he seemed animated, laughing and gesticulating in a way I had never seen. 'Daddy, is that man a friend of Grandad's?' It seemed unlikely, Grandad was clean and always very correctly dressed. 'I shouldn't think so.' 'Then why are they talking for so long?' 'I expect they were in the War together.' 'Oh.' I already knew what that meant: not the Second-rate war Daddy had been in, but the earlier one, the real one, the 'Great' War; the one where Grandad had got his medals and his arthritis, and since which he had 'never been the same again'. Then I saw Grandad take out of an inside pocket and unfold one of those large white pieces of paper that he and Daddy always carried 'for emergencies' (like Granny carried an extra hankie), but which were rarely seen: one of the old five pound notes. As he walked back towards us, he turned and held up his hand to shake a box of matches at the man, who waved his one arm in reply. ix Preface X When he rejoined us, Grandad still had a smile on his face. 'Grandad, you didn't get any change.' I had watched scrupu lously. Sometimes my brother and I got a silver threepenny bit out of the spare change in Grandad's pocket. 'No.' 'That was a very expensive box of matches.' 'Not to me.' I pondered this sublime piece of adult logic. Whatever would Granny have said? Then, with undreamt of temerity, I chanced my arm: 'Grandad?' 'Yes?' 'Why did you buy the matches?- You've got a lighter.' 'One day, when you're grown-up, you'll understand.' But I think I had already realised, incoherently, that on the contrary it was not until I did understand that I ever should be grown-up. So I continued to step out of line and to ask awkward questions. Developing that strategic refusal to be ladylike, this book marks one more impatient skip along my progress to adulthood. Claire M. Tylee University of Malaga Acknowledgements This book had two midwives to coax it into the open: Angela Ingram and Joe Marsh. I relied on their emotional support which never failed me. For the intellectual push and pull that kept me under way, I am indebted to Pilar Hidalgo and Esteban Pujals. Other people sparked off ideas and encouraged me theoretically: Catalina Montes gave me insights into Virginia Woolf's aesthetics, Roger Poole stimulated my biographical approach, Bill Schwarz pro vided the political bedrock; John Hazlett argued with me about generational autobiography and sent me references, and Pete Messent discussed the idea of cultural zones. Beth L'Oiseaux gave me the lead to banned books, Esther Newton and Helen McNeil answered queries, and Alan Bishop commented constructively on my views about Vera Brittain. Just as importantly, George, Anne and Ken at the second-hand bookshop offered enthusiasm and practical advice, and Carlos Alba and Marcos Espinosa waved adamantly and provocatively from the other side of the gender barrier. I am grateful to Kenneth Graham for enabling me to carry out research at Sheffield University Library and to Bryan Burns for helping me with it, and I want to express my gratitude to the librarians there, and at Birmingham Public Reference Library, Friends House Library .and Leicester University Library for their energetic help and interest. Without the resources of the Imperial War Museum and the care of its staff, particularly Dr Bayliss, I could not have written this book at all, and I want to thank them especially for their time and patience. Indirectly I am indebted to the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, the root of many of my ideas about the relation between literature, ideology and cultural hegemony. More directly, I am indebted to feminist literary historians such as Jane Marcus and Elaine Showalter for blazing the trail. For permission to reproduce the illustrations in the plates section I am indebted to the following: The Imperial War Museum (1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (9) and (17); Mary Evans/Fawcett Library (8), (10) and (12); McMaster University Library (13); Tate Gallery (5); Walker Art Gallery (4). [The publishers have tried to contact all copyright xi