War Literature and Memory Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering First World War literature, historical figures, psychological concepts, and artistic movements discussed in university lectures.

Munitionettes

Women who worked in munitions factories during the First World War, primarily in Irish cities like Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Waterford.

Easter Rising (1916)

A rebellion in Dublin against British rule, planned by the Irish Republican Brotherhood to establish an Irish Republic during the First World War.

Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)

A voluntary revolutionary society that organized the Easter Rising and sought Irish independence from Britain.

William Butler Yeats

An influential Irish Modernist poet and Nobel Prize winner who wrote about the Easter Rising's impact in poems such as "Easter, 1916."

Noh Theatre

A 14th-century Japanese theatrical form that combines dance, music, and Buddhist themes, which significantly influenced W.B. Yeats's playwriting.

Abbey Theatre

Originally the Irish Theatre founded by W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, focused on Irish legends, mysticism, and cultural origins.

"A terrible beauty is born"

The famous oxymoronic refrain from Yeats's "Easter, 1916," symbolizing the horrifying yet transformative nature of the rebellion.

Motley

A multicolored dress typically worn by jesters; used by Yeats to represent Ireland's mixture of diverse cultural and political backgrounds.

The Sublime

An aesthetic concept describing something so beautiful or terrifying that it overwhelms the observer, often applied to the horrors of war.

Maud Gonne

An actress and ardent Irish nationalist who was the object of W.B. Yeats's obsessive courtship and a major influence on his political work.

"Scars Upon My Heart"

A 1981 anthology of women's First World War poetry, edited by Catherine Reilly, which aimed to reclaim female literary voices.

Aesthetic of combat

The critical idea that only those with direct experience of trench fighting were qualified to write authentic war poetry.

Charlotte Mew

A New Woman poet known for "May, 1915" and "The Farmer’s Bride," who explored themes of madness, loss, and the subversion of nature.

Resistance to consolation

A literary stance, seen in Charlotte Mew's work, where the poet rejects the idea that natural cycles or seasonal rebirth can provide comfort for war's losses.

Edith Cavell

A British Red Cross nurse executed by German forces in 1915; she famously stated, "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone."

V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment)

A voluntary unit of civilians, mainly women, who provided nursing and medical assistance during the First World War.

Mary Borden

A wealthy American writer and nurse who operated a mobile hospital in France and authored the fragmented Modernist collection "The Forbidden Zone."

The Forbidden Zone (La Zone Interdite)

The term used in the French Army for the strip of land immediately behind the firing line where medical units were stationed.

Poilus

An informal French term for infantrymen, meaning "hairy ones," to whom Mary Borden dedicated her sketches.

Non-place (Marc Augé)

An anthropological concept for transitional spaces, like mobile hospitals, that lack fixed geographical identity.

The Female Gaze

The perspective of women, especially nurses, witnessing the physical obscenity of male wounds and the reality of war from the side of the civilian.

Rebecca West

A feminist and socialist journalist and novelist who wrote "The Return of the Soldier," the first Modernist novel to address shellshock.

Baldry Court

The wealthy English estate that serves as the claustrophobic setting for West's "The Return of the Soldier."

Amnesia (as shellshock)

A psychological symptom where a character, like Chris Baldry, represses traumatic memories of the recent past to return to a happier youthful state.

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator whose credibility is compromised, such as Jenny in "The Return of the Soldier," who is biased by her personal trauma and love for Chris.

The Cenotaph

A symbolic empty tomb in Whitehall, London, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to commemorate the "Glorious Dead."

Butcher Haig

The derogatory nickname for General Douglas Haig, who was criticized for high casualty rates during the Battle of the Somme.

Otto Dix

A German Expressionist artist whose paintings, like "War Cripples," highlighted the horrific physical impact of war on veterans.

Käthe Kollwitz

A German artist whose sculpture "The Grieving Parents" commemorates the universal loss of children in the Great War.

Anna Coleman Ladd

An American sculptor who created painted copper masks to hide the facial deformities of disfigured World War I soldiers.

The Lost Generation

A term for the post-WWI expatriate American writers, including Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who were disillusioned by the conflict.

Retreat of Caporetto (1917)

A massive Italian military defeat and retreat which forms the historical backbone of Hemingway’s "A Farewell to Arms."

"A dirty trick"

The final aphoristic definition of death and war uttered by Catherine Barkley in Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms."

Pat Barker

A contemporary British novelist known for the "Regeneration" trilogy, which explores First World War trauma through historical and fictional characters.

Dr. W.H. Rivers

A medical psychologist and anthropologist at Craiglockhart who advocated for the "talking cure" and recognized the link between hysteria and shellshock.

Craiglockhart War Hospital

A facility in Scotland for shellshocked officers where real figures like Sassoon and Owen were treated by Dr. Rivers.

Dr. Lewis Yealland

A historical physician at the National Hospital in London who used painful electroshock therapy to "cure" mute shellshock patients.

The Talking Cure

A therapeutic technique focused on the narration of memories and dreams to vocalize and overcome repressed trauma.

"Half a life"

Margaret's realization in "Regeneration" regarding children who die young, symbolizing the shared tragedy between different social classes during the war.

"Every inch a soldier"

Jenny's observation at the end of "The Return of the Soldier," signifying that Chris has been "cured" and is ready to return to the reality of the trenches.