Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This project seeks to redefine war’s poetic landscape. Through a focus on women’s Great War poetry, I argue against a dichotomous home front | front line poetic barrier and instead explore the intermingling of wartime spaces. Women’s WWI poetry, I argue, exists within a space I call the homefront lines, a space in which women produce writing from their full experiences of war regardless of combatant status. The homefront lines must be included in World War I literary canons in order to fully recognize the humanity of women during wartime and to fully grasp the war’s impact on poetry as a genre.

I argue for the existence of homefront lines through careful analysis of female poets’ use of religious allegory, religious imagery, religious reference, and religious doctrine. Previously unexplored in a full-length project, women’s religious Great War poetry clearly and firmly knits women into the fabric of war. Chapter 1 will explore how female poets used the classical artistic image of the Pietà to reify their closeness to male combatants and in turn the war itself. Chapter 2 will explore the presence-by-absence of holy ghosts and the inescapable haunting of war, even decades after the war has ended. Chapter 3 will explore the religious war poetry of Ada and Ethel Peters and the ways in which their scriptural poems act as a flashpoint for Civil Rights and a shield against potential criticism.

My dissertation draws on poems from different cultures, languages, and religions. Many of these poets never met one another, and while some have become household names, others have been marginalized into obscurity. Despite these women’s multitudinous differences, their war poetry bears undeniable religious expressions of their full wartime humanity. All of the poets analyzed here are writing from the homefront lines.

Date

2-20-2025

Committee Chair

Barrett, Chris

Download

Share

COinS