Between Entertainment and Elegy: The Unexpected Success of R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End (1928)

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Curtis Walters
Keyword(s):  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
Historical Reenactment ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
International Success ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

AbstractDespite West End producers' and critics' expectations that it would never turn a profit, R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End (1928) became the most commercially successful First World stage drama of the interwar period, celebrated as an authentic depiction of the Great War in Britain and around the world. This article explains why. Departing from existing scholarship, which centers on Sherriff's autobiographical influences on his play, I focus instead on the marketing and reception of this production. Several processes specific to the interwar era blurred the play's ontology as a commercial entertainment and catapulted it to international success. These include its conspicuous engagement with and endorsement by veterans of the war, which transformed the play into historical reenactment; the multisensory spectatorial encounter, which allowed audiences to approach Journey's End as a means of accessing vicarious knowledge about the war; and a marketing campaign that addressed anxieties about the British theatrical industry. Finally, I trace the reception of this play into the Second World War, when British soldiers and prisoners of war spontaneously revived it around the world. The afterlives of Journey's End, I demonstrate, suggest new ways of conceiving of the cultural legacy of the First World War across the generations.

scholarly journals Gry pamięci. Valiant Hearts: The Great War i My Memory of Us w perspektywie kultury historycznej

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (38) ◽  
pp. 144-160
Author(s):  
Marcin Pigulak
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Press ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

The paper aims to outline how video games Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2014) and My Memory of Us (Juggler Games, 2018) use narrative and ludic structures to create commemorative stories about the First World War and the Second World War. The author refer to the concept of historical culture (among others, in Jörn Rüsen’s interpretation) and examine the connections between the two video games focusing on the issue of designers’ intentions (digital games as examples of the commemoration of the past), the genre similarity (2D platform games), the intermedial convergence and the press reception. He discusses the strategy of the cultural agreement between designers and users, analyzes historical narratives as a part of the gameplay, examines relations between the individual and collective’s perspective and characterizes immersion’s mechanisms which reinforce players’ identification with the victims of both wars.

scholarly journals The First World War and the refugee crisis: historiography and memory in the Greek context

HISTOREIN ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Emilia Salvanou
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World ◽  
The Way

The paper aims to trace the historiographical construction of the Great War in the Greek national narrative. Its main argument is that although the First World War was more or less a shared experience among its participants, the way it was constructed as an event is aligned not to the experience as such, but to the national discourse that subsequently prevailed. In the Greek case, its historiographical construction took place in three main stages: the first during the interwar period, when the temporal framework of the event were set (the war decade of 1912–1922) and the interest was mainly in the military and political aspects. The second stage developed after the Second World War, when there was a turn towards testimonies and the field of refugee studies was shaped. It was during this stage that the memory of the refugees found its place in the national narrative. The third stage began in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when a split developed in the way the event is constructed in public and lay history and in the way it is constructed in academic historiography, where the limits of national historiographies are critiqued.

The First World War and the International Economy. Edited by Chris Wrigley. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2000. Pp. x, 221.

2001 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 1168-1170
Author(s):  
James Foreman-Peck
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
International Economy ◽  
World War ◽  
Bolshevik Revolution ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

What difference did the First World War make to the international economy? Since “one thing leads to another,” avoiding this conflict might have prevented the Bolshevik revolution and the Second World War. The Soviet empire need not have collapsed because it would never have arisen. By the same token, the Fascist rulers of Europe and the militaristic government of Japan might never have come to power. On this reckoning, the impact of the “Great War” was to take the twentieth century on a long detour.

scholarly journals Libraries for Wounded Soldiers and Prisoners of War during the World War I

2015 ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Tat’yana D. Rubanova
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Library Services ◽  
World War ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
First World

The article is devoted to the 100th anniversary of the First World War. It reveals the organization of library services for the wounded soldiers and prisoners of war during the World War I. There is considered participation of public institutions, social and charitable institutions, professional societies in the Book Supply libraries in hospitals and infirmaries, camps for prisoners of war. There are described forms of public participation in the collection of funds, purchasing, acquisition and delivery of books. There is presented the statistical data on the number of collected books and libraries.

scholarly journals The Serbian heritage of the Great War in Greece

Balcanica ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Vlasis Vlasidis
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World ◽  
Of Greece ◽  
Different Parts

During the First World War Serbian soldiers were encamped or fought in different parts of Greece. Many of them died there of diseases or exhaustion or were killed in battle. This paper looks at the issue of cemeteries of and memorials to the dead Serbian soldiers (primarily in the area of Corfu, Thessaloniki and Florina) in the context of post-war relations between Greece and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), at the attitude of post-Second World War Yugoslavia towards them, and the Serbs? revived interest in their First World War history. It also takes a look at the image of Serbs in the memory of local people.

scholarly journals Heritage and memory of the First World War in Greece during the interwar period a historical perspective

Balcanica ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 221-236
Author(s):  
Elli Lemonidou
Keyword(s):  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
First World War ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
World War ◽  
War Memorials ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

The memory of the First World War in Greece has suffered throughout the years a gradual decline, which is comparable to the case of many other countries, mostly in areas of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Great War mattered somehow for politicians, the press and public opinion in Greece only in the interwar years. During that period, discourse about the First World War included the echo of traumatic events related to Greek involvement in the war(such as the surrender of Fort Roupel to Central Powers forces and the bloody clashes of December 1916 in Athens after the landing of Entente troops) and the efforts to erect war memorials as a tribute to the sacrifice of fallen soldiers, both Greeks and foreigners. At the same time, the Greek people had the opportunity to learn a lot about the international dimension of the war through news?papers, where translated memoirs of leading wartime figures (of both alliances) were published. After the outbreak of the Second World War, interest in the previous major conflict (including the Greek role in the hostilities) significantly diminished in the country. Taking into consideration the ongoing experience of the centenary manifestations, the author proposes a codification of the main types (existing or potential) of WWI memory in Greece and suggests new ways of approaching this major historical event. The final chapter addresses some possible causes of the troublesome relation of Greeks with the First World War, which is mainly due to the very particular circumstances of Greek involvement in the war and the determining role of later historical events that overshadowed memories of the earlier conflict.

scholarly journals Trasformazioni del lavoro e antidemocrazia negli anni tra le due guerre

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Musso
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Trajectories Of Change ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

The present contribution is divided into two parts: the first is the transformations of the world of labour between the two wars, tracing the context in which totalitarian impulses of a fascist nature were affirmed; the second, closely connected to the first, tries to outline the methods and contents with which counter-democracy tried to gain consensus, even in the world of labour. We will try to retrace, in broad terms, some trajectories of change induced by the First World War, their evolution in the inter-war period, the influence that these changes exerted on the Second World War and beyond, with some reference to the post-war period.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Norman Ingram
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Great War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

This chapter sets up three main arguments that are developed in the book: first, that the debate on war origins and war guilt in the First World War nearly destroyed the Ligue des droits de l’homme well before the Second World War; secondly, that this debate lay at the heart of a dissenting, new style of pacifism which emerged in France near the end of the 1920s; and thirdly, that both of these phenomena catalysed the emergence of pro-Vichy sentiments during the Second World War. This latter development was not the result of philo-fascism but rather of an overriding commitment to peace which had its origin in the belief that the Great War had been fought by France under false pretences.

Second World War and Its Repercussions: Impetus on Poverty in Travancore

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
SAFEED R
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
Minimal Effect ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Entire World ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

In the first half of the twentieth century the world witnessed two deadliest wars and it directly or indirectly affected the countries all over the world. The First World War from 1914-1918 and the Second World War from 1939-1945 shooked the base of the socio-economic and political structure of the entire world. When compared to the Second World War, the First World War confined only within the boundaries of Europe and has a minimal effect on the other parts of the world. The Second World War was most destructive in nature and it changed the existing socio-economic and political setup of the world countries.

THE MNEMONIC TURN IN THE CULTURAL HISTORIOGRAPHY OF BRITAIN'S GREAT WAR

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 1103-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN HEATHORN
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

How the First World War has come to be remembered has, over the past two decades, become a major concern for British historians, eclipsing earlier scholarly preoccupations with war guilt and its political consequences, the impact of the war on social structure and the status of women, and the conflict's role in the rise of the modernist aesthetic. This article surveys both scholarship on the cultural legacy of the First World War in Britain and the debates about how the memory of this war – the ‘Great War’ – has either retarded its consideration ‘as history’ or spurred new, if not always entirely successful, modes of inquiry into the relationships among war, society, and culture. The article argues that memory of the Great War must itself be treated as history; that the meaning of that memory should be placed within the context of the changing events, ideas, and identities of the entire twentieth century; and that more scholarly attention needs to be directed at the popular reception of representations of the Great War by the population at large, and at the power of the various forms of media by which those representations have been conveyed to their audience and have thereby shaped memory of the conflict.

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