The Great War was unprecedented both in its devastation and in the significance people attached to it, which this dissertation contends led to a crisis of representation that manifested in literary tropes and discourses of sterility. Some authors used sterility to represent the war as a cultural and historical apocalypse, others as a basis for questioning how literature, Western civilization, and humanity itself could continue after such a catastrophe. "Static Chaos" theorizes how thematic renderings of sterility work alongside modernist formal experimentation to sever reproductive literary traditions. The widespread instances of sterility reveal the deep effects of the war on non-combatants as well as combatants, as demonstrated through analysis of novels by a diverse group of authors from Britain and United States--Rebecca West, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Claude McKay, and Ford Madox Ford. The study moves chronologically yet it also follows a narrative logic of thwarted human sexual experience beginning with novels focused upon problematic virginity, then those depicting the inability or unwillingness to procreate, and then one preoccupied with pregnancy overshadowed by illegitimacy and stillbirth. This dissertation draws upon trauma theory and grief and mourning theory, which reveal how, in addition to individual experiences of psychological trauma, the war disabled traditional means of coping, leading to a widespread inability to mourn that was traumatizing in itself. I name this state "traumatic grief" and argue that its pervasiveness led authors to break with a longstanding interconnection between making war and making babies. "Static Chaos" also expands theories that diagnose narrative's mimetic relationship to human sexual intercourse and sexuality, particularly those of Judith Roof and Lee Edelman who assert narrative's heterosexuality based on its traditional logic of continuation. I argue that post-war formal experimentation in modernist literature renders narrative metaphorically sterile by disrupting reproductive traditions and conventions. These formal components include generic manipulation, representations of inversion and paradox, ambiguous or inconclusive endings, and parodic or circular plot structures. Together with themes of sterility, these formal elements work to depict the post-war world as fixed in a barren wasteland, trapped in static chaos.

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<p> This essay explores a neglected aspect of Great War literature, the verse written by women. The essay suggests possible reasons for the long neglect of the poetry written by women and points to the work yet to be done in the area,in addition to making some initial critical comment on the poetry. Before discussing the poems which women wrote about the Great War experience it was necessary to find them and for that reason this work is divided into two parts: the poems which form the appendix and, in an Introduction and two chapters, the first critical appraisal of this material. </p> <p> The poems, which were found tn popular and literary journals, in collected works and anthologies, are gathered here and presented for consideration for the first time. The twenty-nine poems in the appendix were chosen from among thousands available, a quantity which clearly provided a wide range of quality. My first consideration in choosing the poems was to choose those in which the poet matched the content and the treatment of the content. discarded the clearly sentimental and the trite and looked for poetic attempts to come to terms with basic emotions and experiences. Some of the poems of lesser quality or poems with a few good effects or ideas have been included in the critical commentary. Other poems have been included in the body of the essay to illustrate themes or attitudes. </p> <p> One of the problems for an anthologist is to decide on the categories for arranging poems. War anthologies are sometimes printed alphabetically by author and more often by placing poems with similar attitudes together. I decided to use the latter method. When the poems had been selected and arranged so that those which were similar in content were together it became clear that chronology is also important. As the war continues the poetry changes. The earliest poems, particularly those printed in the United States, express anger and seek causes for war. The later poems express despair and disillusionment. Thus the essay not only discusses common themes and symbols used by the poets to describe their experience of the Great War it also shows the development of attitudes to the war as expressed in poetry. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

During the Great War, the dependents of all servicemen in each branch of the British Armed Forces became theoretically eligible for maintenance at public expense. In August 1914, only a fraction of all Army wives and no Navy wives were eligible for allowances or pensions; by November of that year all were entitled to some level of assistance. The organisational chaos caused by the Liberal Government's decision to grant "universal" benefits to dependents sparked an extensive press campaign and inspired the formation or expansion of a large number of charitable agencies. 1915 and 1916 witnessed attempts on the part of the Asquith Liberal Government and the Asquith Coalition Government to respond to these expressions of concern with a series of half measures. By the summer of 1916, however, the issue had been complicated by the looming problems of reconstruction and predictions of the collapse of the system under the demands of millions of demobilised servicemen. Before the resignation of Asquith in December 1916, the Ministry of Pensions Act was passed. Thus, between August of 1914 and December of 1916 the system had been completely transformed from a disparate, and limited trickle of maintenance for a select few to a widely dispersed benefit controlled by the state. The accelerated pace of social policy in this arena has attracted some attention particularly from feminist historians who describe this system as the cornerstone of the gendered British welfare state. In illuminating some important issues in the debate over these benefits, this approach has obscured others. While it is crucial to understand the roots of inequity in the British welfare state, too narrow a focus has tended to obscure continuity in practice and theory and minimise the impact of contemporary attitudes on the development of these policies. This thesis counteracts the tendency of feminist historians to apply presentist models by demonstrating that charities and governmental agencies responsible for the welfare of servicemen's dependents owed as much or more to traditional Liberal, Conservative and patriotic conceptions of poor relief as to New Liberal ideals of state responsibility. As well, by focusing on the process of decision making at the highest levels of government, this thesis demonstrates the heterogeneity of people and ideals influencing the formation of policy in this period. Both pragmatic and theoretical concerns inspired the drive for reform in this arena. During the Great War, the traditional role of women as the first victims of any war had been partially superseded by the necessity to convince them of their centrality to the war effort. Some perceived the moral and physical power wielded by women in wartime as a promise, others as a threat; both sides of the debate used the treatment of servicemen's wives and widows as a bulwark for their arguments. Servicemen's wives and widows fit neatly into the dichotomy of the female role in wartime; their image could be used to promote an idealised form of passive female bravery and to counteract the "masculinising" tendencies of the war. The ubiquity of such images contributed to the conception of these women as inherently "deserving" of public maintenance. Through the examination of such images, this thesis demonstrates the link between the vagaries of public opinion and the often haphazard formation of social policy. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In manufacturing and army terms, Britain was not able or geared up to deal with the Great War. It was able to cope with a small, short war on the continent as part of a larger coalition but not the global crisis that came about. Britain s research and development before the Great War had been in the Royal Navy. The army had been neglected. At the outbreak of the war it had been planned for the navy to carry the burden of the conflict but this proved to be an erroneous course of action. Very early in the war it became obvious that the armaments industry was unable to provide the munitions to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion. The government had to set up the Ministry of Munitions in order to co-ordinate the manufacturing ramp up , mobilise and train the nation for total war in order to meet the requirements of the armed forces to fight the war and solve the crisis. After leaks to the press and political manoeuvring, the Ministry of Munitions was set up to take away the responsibility of the War Office to manufacture, procure and supply munitions. It was a masterstroke. The workforce was increased by the introduction of semi-skilled labour and many of them being women they brought with them the need for welfare reform in the factories. Those reforms had a positive effect upon the male workforce and productivity in general. Semi-skilled workers were trained by educational establishments throughout the land and many modern universities, like Loughborough owe their very existence to the Great War. Loos was fought and lost on War Office contracts, Arras was amply supplied by Ministry initiatives and the 100 Days campaign of 1918 was made possible by massive, British manufacturing output. In essence, British manufacturing won the Great War. The war was a crisis solved by manufacturing. The thesis focuses mainly upon the primary source document that is the Official History of the Ministry of Munitions, war diaries and publications written at the end of in in the years after the Great War.

In April 1915 a journalist named Malcolm Ross was appointed New Zealand’s official war correspondent to cover the actions of the country’s troops wherever they might be fighting during World War I. Few today appear to have heard of this man so the task of this research was to discover who he was, why he was chosen and how effective he was as a correspondent. The fact he had not been remembered hinted at two possibilities; the first was that as little attention has been given to New Zealand’s media history so he had become one of the forgotten and just awaited some eager historian to rediscover him or, secondly, he had been forgotten because he had not left a lasting legacy or tradition worthy of remembrance. It was a conundrum waiting to be solved and that was the purpose of the research. What was uncovered was a man, born of Scottish working class parents who by 52, when he was selected as official war correspondent, had reached what appeared to be the pinnacle of his career. He was successful, both financially and socially. He had been an exceptional mountaineer and sportsman. His journalism and photographic skills had made him one of the leading journalists of his day. Few were surprised when he was appointed as the country’s first official war correspondent. It is the contention of this thesis that from the time of his appointment, Ross’s reputation and status eroded to the extent that his final years after the war appeared to have been spent in relative obscurity. The reason for this will be explored and largely hinges on the almost overwhelming criticism Ross received for his efforts as war correspondent. A major part of the research was devoted to determining whether this criticism was fair and whether Ross warranted elevation into the ranks of the undeserved forgotten of our country’s media heroes.

This thesis addresses the importance of the American Civil War to nineteenth-century European military education, and its influence on British staff officer training prior to World War I. It focuses on Garnet Wolseley, a Civil War observer who eventually became Commander in Chief of the Forces of the British Army. In that position, he continued to write about the war he had observed a quarter-century earlier, and was instrumental in according the Civil War a key role in officer training. Indeed, he placed Stonewall Jackson historian G.F.R. Henderson in a key military professorship. The thesis examines Wolseley’s career and writings, as well as the extent to which the Civil War was studied at the Senior Staff College, in Camberly, after Wolseley’s influence had waned. Analysis of the curriculum from the College archives demonstrates that study of the Civil War diminished rapidly in the ten years prior to World War I.

Just over a hundred years ago, the First World War profoundly disrupted the landscape of Europe: from the fields of Galicia to the French plains, from the Alpine arc to the coasts of the Baltic Sea, position and trench warfare brought about transformations by etching the ground, carving out mountains, reorganizing territorial arrangements and original environmental ecosystems, leaving room for the stratification of new traces and meanings that, over time, have contributed to the construction of what is now universally recognized as a fragile cultural heritage of high complexity. If Law n.78 of 2001, as a synthesis of a very intense and fruitful debate, protects the remains of the First World War mainly intending to protect this particular historical heritage without altering “the material and historical characteristics” (in the Italian context), in the aftermath of the celebrations for the Centenary, and in light of numerous projects that have been applied to the restoration/recovery/evaluation of these assets, to return to investigate the “landscapes of war” means to set up a new research to understand how these remains can continue to narrate their “being in time” to future generations, stimulating “possibilities of memory” and representing at the same time substantial resources, cultural but also economic, for the future. A problem of scale clearly emerged following the analysis of the status quo of a representative sample of places and artifacts and concluded/ongoing projects at the international level. The pregnant force of the remains as a “system” deeply connected not only by a physical infrastructure of field fortifications, entrenchments, barracks, and obstacle courses but also by a dense network of intangible and visual relationships that substantiated their functioning, today is increasingly weakening. As a confirmation of this, it is evident, for example, how the fragmentation of the interventions and their management policies is also reflected in the greater attention paid by the majority of the carried out projects to the permanent fortifications compared to the entrenched articulated systems that surrounded them and were an integral part of them. To solve this interpretative-operative gap, the need to recover a systemic vision capable of moving at different scales and grasping the intangible wholeness of the system-vestiges, today apparently shattered, has emerged. This vision should focus attention not on the fragments as “remains of a whole that no longer exists”, but on the potential that they can still generate if put in tension with each other: a magnetic field capable of binding the different parts and recomposing their meanings. This has led to moving away from the specificity of individual disciplinary knowledge to embrace a transversal approach able to place the warscape at the core and analyze it in its entire nature and biography of landscape-palimpsest multi-layered in different times. In this perspective, the indissoluble symbiosis between physical “signs” and immaterial values (deposited over time) has turned out to be the specific peculiarity of the “character” of these “war landscapes”, thus recognizing the condition of fragility not as a point of weakness, but rather as their most “authentic” peculiarity. It was possible to identify different “ways of seeing” these warscapes through this simultaneously inductive and deductive knowledge-based process, studying not only the theoretical and methodological aspects of spatial analysis but also the relationships between the socio-cultural, historical, and anthropological factors that have defined its development and transformation. This approach focuses increasingly on the need to adopt a holistic vision to overcome the current fragmentation of this heritage and think about its future without betraying its authenticity. Operationally, this approach has been declined through two current levels of research. As an essential moment to consciously set up the future operative proposals, an order matrix was defined to reread the complexity recovering a systemic vision also in the analytical phase. By arranging the building typologies with the different morphologies of the territories, it was possible to identify some “war-scape classes”, useful to interpret the fragmentary nature of the different “war landscapes” through the identification both of the driving forces that had determined their construction, in different times, and of the same ones that can determine the trajectories of future change. By identifying the different “war-scape classes”, it was possible to critically reinterpret the status quo of places and artifacts through a “systemic look”. Based on what emerged, an articulate SWOT analysis was devolped to highlight the main potential and criticality of the remains at the system level. The second declination of this holistic approach focused on the meaning of the recognition of “war landscapes” as “places of memory”. Through the evolutionary study of the different phases of the “construction of the Great War memory”, which throughout a century have alternated multiple and polysense “practices of narration”, it was possible to better understand the processes that led to the recognition of the testimonial value of the remains. In this way, it was also possible to understand that specific “sense of place” that, metaphorically, identifies the different warscapes as “high capacity condensers of values”, in which the intensity of the potential (the meaningfulness of meanings/new re-significations) is directly proportional to the charge that is generated at the moment in which the relationships between the different poles (archipelago of vestiges as fragments) are strengthened. In this specific regard, it was possible to identify the physical space of the threshold between “the visible and the submerged” as a particularly dense and pregnant accumulation basin to be “poetically investigated” to unveil the permanence of the imprint of the war (manifested there as much on a physical level in the “matter marked” by the conflict as in the meanings assumed by such “signs”), still present today but “hidden” under the multiple layers of deposition that have stratified over time. The considerations obtained through the two levels of research have been combined with a theoretical reflection on the recognition of the “landscapes of war” as “heritage” understood in its various etymological meanings (legacy, inheritance, and patrimony). In this way, it was possible to better understand the meaning of the concept of enhancement applied to this heritage, bringing to the surface some semantic nuclei that are currently critical concerning the strengthening and/or enhancement of which to consciously direct future orientations of priorities. The priority issue, which strongly emerged, was the pressing need to develop new operational strategies to facilitate the recognition, within the contemporary multi-layered landscape, of the different levels of permanence of the remains, including in particular the most fragile “signs” in terms of permanence, currently at greater “risk of loss”. In addition to this, the need to propose new strategies regarding the policies of coordination and management of processes with particular attention to the importance of participatory aspects (issues identified but not explored in detail in this research), and the need to better understand some aspects of construction technology (related to technological experiments of reinforced concrete of whose structural behavior little is known), also emerged. In an inter-scalar vision, these aspects have assumed even greater importance in the awareness that the ability to recognize different areas concerning which the vestiges remain in the contemporary world at different levels of semantic significance is a necessary prerequisite for future projects to operate recovering that systemic vision lost today, ensuring the system-vestiges, as such, different margins of design, preserving our “possibility of memory” through its evocative potential. In this perspective, the research has therefore elaborated and proposed a “method in complexity” proper to facilitate the recognition of what can have testimonial value at the landscape scale by identifying areas in which the vestiges of war persist at different temperatures. This is a new paradigm that, moving from the need to recover a systemic view capable of recognizing the permanence of even the most fragile remains, expands the meaning of “testimonial value” at the scale of the “warscape” by introducing the concept of “testimonial gradient”. This is a useful parameter to identify the different areas in which the degree of semantic significance of the vestiges and the related “possibilities of memory” are graduated according to the level of knowledge of specific indicators, such as the historical-identity aspects, the typological-constructive knowledge of the artifacts, the degree of community involvement and, above all, the legibility of the vestige-system. In addition to having defined at a conceptual level the meaning of these indicators, the research has also developed an analytical method based on a multi-criteria analysis to make operational the qualitative considerations expressed by the knowledge-based parameters previously identified and to obtain accurate fragility maps of the different warscapes. These documents are fascinating not only because they give an overall view of the semantic density of a given context, but because they are a fundamental proactive tool for future practices of “care”: the essential knowledge base on which to base future choices in terms of conservation, protection, and enhancement. In the light of the previous considerations, it has emerged the awareness of how necessary is the interdisciplinary collaboration for the definition of the indicators constituting the “testimonial gradient”: the last part of the present research has therefore been mainly focused on the elaboration of an operative method to facilitate the deepening of two of these indicators, in relation also to the criticalities previously emerged, linked to the issues of recognizability of the most fragile permanences, both from an overall point of view and of construction technology. Therefore, intending to contribute to the unveiling of the broad and deep information basin in which the complex system of visible but also “submerged” vestiges has been recognized, the research proposed the elaboration of a knowledge-based method called “stratigraphic telescope”, a methodological tool able to explore the processes of construction/transformation of war landscapes at different scales. This method proved to be a fertile contribution to place, side by side with the study of archival documents and manuals of fortifications, an indispensable store of knowledge to better understand the construction techniques, the technical and technological details, the materials used, and the tactical or planting solutions proposed. This method is clearly based on applying the interpretive code of architectural stratigraphy to the scale of the landscape, thus interpreting the history of artifacts as the result of processes of addition, subtraction, and transformation that have left physical traces linked together in a stratigraphic sequence. Operationally, this has been interpreted in understanding the archaeological transformation’s dynamics of the landscapes over time, comparing the impact of the war event with the current recognition of land uses and the permanence of the remains. This method founds itself mainly on analyzing, comparing, and interpreting historical documentation, period aerial photographs, current orthophotos, and data processing obtained by techniques of high-resolution (remote sensing). In this perspective, the use of software for the creation of Geographic Information Systems such as ArcGis and QuantumGis has been fundamental, as these work environments have allowed overall coordination of the entire cognitive process: from the integrated management of the different input datasets (georeferencing of historical maps of militarization and military aerial photographs) to the processing of the expected outputs. In this regard, the most innovative result of the research has been the important contribution that some specific visualization modalities of LIDAR data obtained through specific tools such as the Relief Tool Visualization (e.g., Hillshading from multiple directions and Sky-View-Factor visualization) have provided in the identification of different degrees of legibility of the footprint of the Great War within the topography of today’s landscape. The validation phase on specific case studies, for example, on the system of Austro-Hungarian forts in Trentino (Italy) and on the entrenched system around Fort Busa Verle (Altopiano di Vezzena, TN, Italy), has allowed us to verify the effectiveness of this method not only on a qualitative but also on a quantitative level. In conclusion, therefore, the elaboration of the tool “stratigraphic telescope”, in addition to the new possibilities of narration introduced by it, is a significant methodological contribution to the definition of the “testimonial gradient” previously described as a crucial moment to consciously set up future projects. The implementation of the proposed method on other case histories and the theoretical-operational deepening of the other identified indicators are the main directions towards which future research perspectives can be developed. / Poco più di cent’anni fa, il Primo Conflitto Mondiale ha profondamente sconvolto il paesaggio dell’intera Europa: dai campi di Galizia alle pianure francesi, dall’arco alpino sino alle coste del Mar Baltico, la guerra di posizione e di trincea ha determinato trasformazioni incidendo il terreno, scavando le montagne, riorganizzando gli assetti territoriali e gli ecosistemi ambientali originali, lasciando spazio alla stratificazione di nuove tracce e significati che, nel corso del tempo, hanno contribuito alla costruzione di quello che oggi è universalmente riconosciuto come un patrimonio culturale fragile ad alta complessità. Se la Legge n.78 del 2001, come sintesi di un dibattito molto intenso e fecondo, protegge le vestigia della Prima guerra mondiale principalmente con l’obiettivo di tutelare questo particolare patrimonio storico senza alterarne «le caratteristiche materiali e storiche» (in ambito italiano), all’indomani delle celebrazioni per il Centenario ed alla luce di numerosi progetti che, sino ad oggi, si sono applicati al restauro/recupero/valorizzazione di questi beni, tornare ad indagare i “paesaggi di guerra” significa impostare una nuova ricerca per comprendere in che modo tali vestigia possano continuare a narrare il loro “essere nel tempo” anche alle prossime generazioni, stimolando “possibilità di memoria” e rappresentando al tempo stesso concrete risorse, culturali ma anche economiche, per il futuro. A seguito dell’analisi dello status quo di un campione rappresentativo di luoghi e manufatti e di progettualità concluse e in atto, a livello internazionale, è chiaramente sorto un problema di scala: la forza pregnante delle vestigia in quanto “sistema” profondamente connesso non solo da un’infrastrutturazione fisica di fortificazioni campali, trinceramenti, baraccamenti e campi ad ostacoli, ma anche da una fitta rete di relazioni intangibili e visuali che ne sostanziavano il funzionamento, oggi si sta sempre più indebolendo. A conferma di ciò si evidenzia, ad esempio, come la frammentazione degli interventi e delle politiche di gestione degli stessi si riverberi anche nella maggior attenzione dedicata dalla maggioranza dei progetti realizzati alle fortificazioni permanenti rispetto agli articolati sistemi trincerati che le circondavano e ne costituivano parte integrante. Per risolvere tale gap interpretativo-operativo, è emersa la necessità di recuperare una visione sistemica in grado di muoversi alle diverse scale e cogliere l’intangibile interezza del sistema-vestigia, oggi apparentemente infranta, focalizzando l’attenzione non ai frammenti in quanto “resti di un intero che ora non esiste più”, ma al potenziale che essi possono ancora generare se messi in tensione uno con l’altro: un campo magnetico in grado di legare le diverse parti e ricomporne i significati. Ciò ha portato ad allontanarsi dalla specificità dei singoli saperi disciplinari per abbracciare invece un approccio trasversale in grado di porre al centro il warscape ed analizzarlo nella sua intera natura e biografia di paesaggio-palinsesto pluristratifcato in tempi diversi. In questa prospettiva, l’indissolubile simbiosi tra “segni” fisici e valori immateriali depositatisi nel corso del tempo è risultata essere la peculiarità specifica del “carattere” di tali “paesaggi di guerra”, riconoscendo quindi la condizione di fragilità non quale punto di debolezza, quanto piuttosto come la loro peculiarità più “autentica”. Attraverso tale processo conoscitivo contemporaneamente induttivo e deduttivo, studiando non solo gli aspetti teorici e metodologici dell’analisi spaziale, ma anche le relazioni tra i fattori socio-culturali, storici ed antropologici che ne hanno definito sviluppo e trasformazioni, è stato quindi possibile individuare differenti “way of seeing” di questi warscapes, mettendo sempre più a fuoco la necessità di adottare una visione olistica per superare l’attuale frammentarietà di questo patrimonio e pensare al suo futuro senza tradirne l’autenticità. Operativamente questo approccio si è declinato attraverso due contemporanei livelli di ricerca. Per recuperare una visione sistemica anche in fase analitica, quale momento essenziale per impostare consapevolmente le future proposte operative, è stata definita una matrice d’ordine per rileggere la complessità: mettendo a sistema le tipologie costruttive con le differenti morfologie dei territori, è stato possibile identificare alcune “war-scape classes”, utili per interpretare la frammentarietà dei differenti “paesaggi di guerra” attraverso l’individuazione sia delle driving forces che ne avevano determinato la costruzione, in tempi diversi, sia delle stesse che ne possono determinare le traiettorie di cambiamento future. Attraverso l’individuazione delle differenti “war-scape classes” è stato possibile reinterpretare criticamente lo status quo di luoghi e manufatti attraverso uno “sguardo sistemico”. Sulla scorta di quanto emerso è stata quindi elaborata un’articolata analisi SWOT per mettere in luce le principali potenzialità e criticità delle vestigia a livello di sistema. La seconda declinazione dell’innovativo approccio olistico precedentemente proposto si è concentrata sul significato del riconoscimento dei “paesaggi di guerra” quali “luoghi della memoria”. Attraverso lo studio evolutivo delle diverse fasi di “costruzione della memoria della Grande Guerra”, che nel corso di tutto un secolo hanno alternato molteplici e polisense “pratiche di narrazione”, è stato possibile meglio comprendere i processi che hanno portato al riconoscimento del valore testimoniale delle vestigia, e quindi di quel “sense of place” specifico che, metaforicamente, identifica i differenti warscapes quali “condensatori di valori ad alta capacità”, in cui l’intensità del potenziale (la pregnanza di significati/nuove ri-significazioni) è direttamente proporzionale alla carica che si genera nel momento in cui vengono rafforzate le relazioni tra i diversi poli (arcipelago di vestigia in quanto frammenti). A questo specifico riguardo, è stato possibile individuare lo spazio fisico della soglia tra “il visibile e il sommerso” quale bacino di accumulo particolarmente denso e pregnante da “indagare poeticamente” per disvelare le permanenze dell’impronta della guerra (ivi manifestatasi tanto a livello fisico nella “materia signata” dal conflitto quanto nei significati assunti da tali “segni”), oggi ancora presente ma “nascosta” al di sotto dei molteplici layer deposizionali che si sono stratificati nel corso del tempo. Le considerazioni ottenute attraverso i due livelli di ricerca sopra descritti sono state messe a sistema con una riflessione a livello teorico rispetto al riconoscimento dei “paesaggi di guerra” in quanto “patrimonio” inteso nelle sue diverse accezioni etimologiche (legacy, inheritance e patrimony). In questo modo è stato possibile meglio constualizzare il significato del concetto di enhancement applicato a questo patrimonio, facendo affiorare alcuni nuclei semantici attualmente critici, rispetto al rafforzamento e/o valorizzazione dei quali indirizzare consapevolmente i futuri orientamenti di priorità. Oltre alla necessità di proporre nuove strategie riguardanti le policies di coordinamento e gestione dei processi con particolare attenzione all’importanza degli aspetti partecipativi (questioni individuate ma non approfondite in dettaglio nella presente ricerca), e all’esigenza di meglio comprendere alcuni aspetti di tecnologia costruttiva (legati alle sperimentazioni tecnologiche del cemento rinforzato del cui comportamento strutturale poco si conosce), la questione prioritaria, emersa con forza, è stata la stringente necessità di elaborare nuove strategie operative per facilitare il riconoscimento, all’interno del paesaggio contemporaneo pluri-stratificato, dei diversi livelli di permanenza delle vestigia, tra cui in particolare dei “segni” più fragili in quanto a permanenza, attualmente a maggior “rischio di perdita”. In una visione inter-scalare, questo aspetto ha assunto ancor maggior importanza nella consapevolezza che la capacità di riconoscere diverse aree rispetto cui le vestigia permangono nella contemporaneità a differenti livelli di pregnanza semantica, costituisce un presupposto necessario alle future progettualità per operare recuperando quella visione sistemica oggi perduta, garantendo al sistema-vestigia, proprio in quanto tale, diversi margini di progettabilità, conservando la nostra “possibilità di memoria” attraverso la sua potenzialità evocativa. In questa prospettiva, la ricerca ha quindi elaborato e proposto un “metodo nella complessità” utile per facilitare il riconoscimento di ciò che può avere valore testimoniale alla scala del paesaggio attraverso l’individuazione di aree in cui le vestigia della guerra permangono a differenti temperature. Si tratta a tutti gli effetti di un nuovo paradigma che, muovendo dalla necessità di recuperare uno sguardo sistemico in grado di riconoscere le permanenze anche delle vestigia più fragili, dilata il significato di “valore di testimonianza” alla scala del “warscape” introducendo il concetto di “gradiente testimoniale”. Si tratta di un parametro utile ad identificare i diversi ambiti nei quali il grado di pregnanza semantica delle vestigia e le relative “possibilità di memoria” risultano graduati in base al livello di conoscenza di specifici indicatori, quali gli aspetti storico-identitari, le conoscenze tipologico-costruttive dei manufatti, il grado di coinvolgimento delle comunità e, soprattutto, la leggibilità del sistema-vestigia. Oltre ad aver definito a livello concettuale il significato di tali indicatori, la ricerca ha sviluppato anche un metodo analitico basato su di un’analisi multicriteriale per rendere operative le considerazioni qualitative espresse dai parametri conoscitivi precedentemente individuati ed ottenere delle vere e proprie mappe della fragilità dei diversi warscapes. Tali elaborati sono particolarmente interessanti non solo perché restituiscono una visione complessiva della densità semantica di un dato contesto, ma in quanto costituiscono un vero e proprio strumento proattivo verso le future pratiche di “cura”, la base conoscitiva indispensabile su cui fondare le future scelte in termini di conservazione, protezione ed enhancement. Alla luce delle precedenti considerazioni è emersa la consapevolezza di quanto necessaria sia la collaborazione interdisciplinare per la definizione degli indicatori costituivi il “gradiente testimoniale”: l’ultima parte della presente ricerca si è quindi concentrata principalmente sull’elaborazione di un metodo operativo per facilitare l’approfondimento di due di questi indicatori, in relazioni anche alle criticità precedentemente emerse, legate alle questioni di riconoscibilità delle permanenze più fragili, sia da un punto di vista d’insieme che di tecnologia costruttiva. Con l’obiettivo quindi di contribuire al disvelamento del bacino informativo ampio e profondo quale è stato riconosciuto il complesso sistema di vestigia visibili ma anche “sommerse”, la ricerca ha proposto l’elaborazione di un metodo conoscitivo denominato “cannocchiale stratigrafico”, uno strumento metodologico in grado di esplorare i processi di costruzione/trasformazione dei paesaggi di guerra alle diverse scale. Tale metodo si è dimostrato essere un contributo conoscitivo molto fertile per affiancare allo studio dei documenti d’archivio e dei Manuali di fortificazioni, bagaglio conoscitivo irrinunciabile per meglio comprendere le tecniche costruttive, i dettagli tecnici e tecnologici, i materiali utilizzati e le soluzioni tattiche o d’impianto proposte, l’applicazione alla scala del paesaggio del codice interpretativo proprio della stratigrafia dell’architettura, che interpreta la storia dei manufatti come esito di processi di apporto, sottrazione e trasformazione che hanno lasciato tracce fisiche collegate tra loro in una sequenza stratigrafica. Operativamente ciò si è declinato nell’interpretazione delle dinamiche di trasformazione archeologica dei paesaggi nel corso del tempo, mettendo a confronto l’impatto dell’evento bellico di cent’anni fa con la ricognizione attuale degli usi del suolo e delle permanenze delle vestigia, principalmente attraverso l’analisi, comparazione e relative interpretazioni tra documentazione storica, fotografie aree d’epoca, ortofoto attuali ed elaborazioni dei dati ottenuti da tecniche di telerilevamento ad alta risoluzione (remote sensing). In questa prospettiva, fondamentale è stato l’utilizzo di software per la creazione di Sistemi Geografici Informativi come ArcGis e QuantumGis in quanto tali ambienti di lavoro hanno permesso una coordinazione complessiva dell’intero processo conoscitivo: dalla gestione integrata dei diversi dataset di input (georeferenziazione di mappe storiche di militarizzazione e fotografie aeree militari) all’elaborazione degli outputs attesi. A questo riguardo, il risultato più innovativo ottenuto della ricerca è stato l’importante contributo che alcune specifiche modalità di visualizzazione dei dati LIDAR ottenute attraverso specifici tools quali il Relief Tool Visualization (ad esempio Hillshading from multiple directions e Sky-View-Factor visualization) hanno fornito nell’identificazione dei diversi gradi di leggibilità dell’impronta della Grande Guerra all’interno della topografia del paesaggio d’oggi. La fase di validazione su specifici casi-studio, ad esempio sul sistema dei forti austro-ungarici del Trentino (Italia) e sul sistema trincerato insistente nell’intorno di Forte Busa Verle (Altopiano di Vezzena, TN, Italy), ha permesso di verificare l’effettiva efficacia di tale metodo a livello non solo qualitativo ma anche quantitativo. In conclusione, quindi, l’elaborazione dello strumento “cannocchiale stratigrafico”, oltre alle nuove possibilità di narrazione da esso introdotte, costituisce un importante contributo metodologico per la definizione del “gradiente testimoniale” precedentemente descritto, quale momento necessario per impostare consapevolmente le future progettualità. L’implementazione del metodo proposto su altre casistiche e l’approfondimento teorico-operativo rispetto agli altri indicatori individuati costituiscono le principali direzioni verso cui possono essere sviluppate future prospettive di ricerca.

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The Great War was an enormous global cataclysm affecting the lives of all inhabitants of the combatant countries and many others. The effects were not uniform, however, and, by assessing the experience of the people of Shetland, this thesis shows how a local history can enhance understanding of the nuances of an international event. The Shetlanders’ experience was similar in many ways to that of other communities, but had aspects that were unusual or even unique. Both local and national sources are used to investigate how the Shetland experience fitted into historiographical discourses on the war. These include: contrasting depictions of the pre-war era as a ‘Golden Age’ or a period of upheaval and conflict; the extent of militarism in pre-war British society; the putative reasons for volunteering for armed service and the controversy about conscription; reactions to the outbreak of war and attitudes towards the enemy and the Government’s handling of the war; the situation of women; and the extent of change and continuity at the re-adaptation to peace. In addition, the thesis explores two related and recurring themes. One of the profound influences on Shetland was its geographical location, which is related here to theories about local and regional history and concepts of ‘islandness’, ‘peripherality’ and ‘place’. Assertions of a Shetland communal consciousness and identity related to a distinctive local experience are also scrutinised. The disparate effects of the war are studied through the experience of different sections of the population. Despite their perceived remoteness, Shetlanders were aware of prewar international antagonisms, especially as their islands became important for Britain’s defence and war strategy and their patriotism came under suspicion. This resulted in recruitment, deployment and casualties for the local armed forces being atypical in the UK. Servicemen’s contemporary writing showed both conformity to prevalent themes and affirmations of local identity. Shetland provided a base for naval operations important to Britain’s victory; relationships between the Navy and Shetlanders were sometimes difficult and visiting servicemen perceived Shetland as remote and different. Examination of the economic consequences of the war and the reactions of Shetland society illustrates how the community’s identity was expressed in the war effort and strengthened, even when national interests were paramount. Finally, commemoration is recognised as both a national movement and an expression of local identity and pride in Shetland’s contribution to victory.