Sacrifice and Modern War Literature

Alex Houen is a University Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature in the Faculty of English, and Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. He is the author of Terrorism and Modern Literature: From Joseph Conrad to Ciaran Carson (Oxford University Press, 2002), editor of States of War since 9/11: Terrorism, Sovereignty, and the War on Terror (Routledge, 2014), and co-editor (with Dominic Janes) of Martyrdom and Terrorism: Pre-Modern to Contemporary Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2014). He also co-edits (with Adam Piette) the international poetry journal Blackbox Manifold.

Jan-Melissa Schramm is a University Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature in the Faculty of English, and Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. She is the author of Testimony and Advocacy in Victorian Law, Literature, and Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Atonement and Self-Sacrifice in Nineteenth-Century Narrative (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Censorship, Dramatic Form, and the Representation of the Sacred in Nineteenth-Century England (forthcoming), and co-editor of Fictions of Knowledge: Fact, Evidence, Doubt (Macmillan, 2011).

Sacrifice and Modern War Literature is the first book to explore how writers from the early nineteenth century to the present have addressed the intimacy of sacrifice and war. It has been common for critics to argue that after the First World War many of the cultural and religious values associated with sacrifice have been increasingly rejected by writers and others. However, this volume shows that literature has continued to address how different conceptions of sacrifice have been invoked in times of war to convert losses into gains or ideals. While those conceptions have sometimes been rooted in a secular rationalism that values lost lives in terms of political or national victories, spiritual and religious conceptions of sacrifice are also still in evidence, as with the 'martyrdom operations' of jihadis fighting against the 'war on terror'.

Each chapter presents fresh insights into the literature of a particular conflict and the contributions explore major war writers including Wordsworth, Kipling, Ford Madox Ford, and Elizabeth Bowen, as well as lesser known authors such as Dora Sigerson, Richard Aldington, Thomas Kinsella, and Nadeem Aslam. The volume covers multiple genres including novels, poetry (particularly elegy and lyric), memoirs, and some films. The contributions address a rich array of topics related to wartime sacrifice including scapegoating, martyrdom, religious faith, tragedy, heroism, altruism, 'bare life', atonement, and redemption.

This book explores how writers from the early nineteenth century to the present have addressed the intimacy of sacrifice and war. Each chapter presents fresh insights into the literature of a particular conflict. The range of literature examined complements the rich array of topics related to wartime sacrifice that the contributors discuss.