This thesis is an exploration of the links between modernist literature and film and society at a period of historical crisis, in Gramscian terms a moment of national 'popular will'. In general, these works are informed by a greater organicity of form, replacing the previous avant-garde model of a serial or mechanical structure. This organicity, however, maintains an element of disjunction, in which, as with filmic montage, the organicity is constituted on the level of the work seen as a totality. Herbert Read's aesthetics are shown to develop with these changes in the Thirties and the war years. The work of H.D. and T.S. Eliot is explored in the light of these new structural elements, and the formal questioning of the subject through the interplay of 'we' and montages of location and address in the poems. The pre-war years are portrayed in these works as a time of shame, and the war as a possible means of redemption, perhaps through suffering, or through the new subjectivity of the wartime community. The documentary movement provides an opportunity to trace these formal changes in a historical and institutional context, and with the work of Dylan Thomas, the relations between mass and high culture, film and poetry, are investigated, as well as the representation of the Blitz, in which guilt is sublimated into celebratory transcendence. These aspects, and the adaptation of a European avant-garde to meet British cultural needs, are examined in the work of the Apocalyptic movement. The last structure of feeling is reconstruction, which is related to Herbert Read's thought, but shown to inform all these other works and to be a linking-point between ideology and the structure of the text, formed as an organic unity that promises a reconstructed post-war society.

Zugl.: Diss. / Literaturverz. S. 183 - 189.

Cette thèse porte sur les représentations de la Seconde Guerre mondiale dans le roman français, de 1945 à 1960. Elle vise à mettre en lumière un corpus de la « guerre manquée », opposé à la vision épique dominante dans l'après-guerre. Elle analyse dans leurs dimensions esthétiques, éthiques et politiques, une vingtaine de romans dont le point commun est de donner à voir une guerre irréelle ou insaisissable, qui a pu constituer pour bien des Français une expérience commune.La première partie analyse la façon dont s’écrit le combat manqué. Ces romans dessinent l’image d’une guerre à la fois fantomatique et violente : observée à distance, presque toujours médiatisée, dissimulée sous des semblants de paix, mais invariablement destructrice.Les romans mettent également en lumière l’échec de la communauté. Par opposition au récit fondateur et unificateur qu’est l’épopée, ils dénoncent très tôt le mythe d’une France tout entière unie dans la lutte. La deuxième partie montre comment se construit l’image d’une nation déchirée ou passive, dont ils incarnent la mauvaise conscience.On s’intéresse enfin à la « pensée du roman », en montrant comment ce dernier a été le vecteur d’une réflexion spécifique sur la communauté. Contre les positions de la Résistance littéraire, puis de l’existentialisme, il a interrogé le primat du rationnel en l’homme ; contre la vogue du document, il a revendiqué la fiction pourexplorer les zones d’ombre ; contre la demande d’exemplarité, enfin, il a constitué un espace d’investigation autonome, attaché à contester les failles et les limites du discours épique. / This thesis deals with the representations of the Second World War found in the French novels published between 1945 and 1960. It aims to shed light on a body of works that depict a “failed war”, unlike the epic vision which prevails in the post-war period. It analyses from an aesthetic, ethical and political perspective twenty novels or so which portray war as an unreal, elusive experience shared by French people.The first part of this work scrutinizes the way writers depict the failure of war. These novels portray the conflict as both spectral and brutal – seen from a distance, almost always mediated, concealed under the appearance of peace, yet unescapably destructive.These novels also throw light on the failure of community. A far cry from the seminal, unifying narrative of the epic, they start attacking the myth of France as unified in the war effort very soon after the end of the conflict.The second part of this thesis looks at the ways they construct the image of a torn or passive nation, as if they were France’s guilty conscience.This study will finally examine the way the novel “thinks”, how it was specifically used to convey a specific reflection on community. Against the discourses of literary Resistance, then Existentialism, it questioned the primacy of rational thinking in men; against the prominence of documents, it embraced fiction as a means to explore dark territories; against the calls for exemplariness, it constituted itself as an autonomous space to investigate the war, as well as to challenge the failures and shortcomings of the epic discourse.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2005. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-282).

Univ., Diss.--Bamberg, 2002.

No description available.

The thesis targets at events which took place in the town of Prachatice and its surroundings at the end of the Second World War. It is based on written sources (filed in the State District Archives Prachatice), as well as on literature sources focusing on this topic and eyewitness memories. The first part presents a brief characterization of the town from geographical, social and economic point of view. The second chapter deals with events taking place in September 1938 when Prachatice was occupied by Nazi Germans. The third part shortly depicts the process of front war situations in Europe. The main part of the thesis consists of chapter 4 and 5 which present the way of living and events happening in the town from January 1945 to May 1945 when Prachatice was liberated by the US army. The thesis aims to connect general relations with events that happened in Prachatice and its surroundings not only to illustrate the topic from literature sources but also from people{\crq}s own memories. It tends to depict this period full of worries and hope. It is hoped to contribute to completion of the town history.