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Articles

Volume 16, Number 1 (1991)

"The Bitterness and the Greatness": Reading F. G. Scott's War

  • M. Jeanne Yardley
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1991-01-01

Abstract

F.G. Scott's 1922 memoir, The Great War As I Saw It, gives the modern reader a site for examining the war from "the essentially ironic modern understanding" (Paul Fussell). Scott's memoir embodies both aspects of the movement from romance to irony: 1) it is, in its language, imagery, and value structure, a romance; and 2) its subtext provides an ironic undermining of the interpretation of war. Scott's narrative adheres to the conventions of historical/medieval romance as identified by Northrop Frye: the episodic pattern of the break with identity; a journey to the underworld and back; the themes of love and adventure; the simple polarized characters of 'us' and 'them'; the protagonist's final ascent and reintegration into a world of harmony; and the protagonist's constitution as a chivalrous, heroic figure. However, Scott the narrator finds that the romance model does not accurately describe what he has experienced. In the memoir, the reiteration of the war as romance and the persistence of the ironic subtext create an ultimately unresolved tension, anticipating the more overtly-ironic approach of later WWI narratives.