Rethinking the depiction of shell-shock in British literature of the First World War, 1914–1918

Abstract

This article discusses the depiction of shell shock and other impairments in British magazine fiction published during the First World War, and the implications from this for teaching and studying the literary representation of the war. The main finding is that, contrary to the post-war use of shell shock in fiction, shell shock was barely mentioned in a large sample of fiction published during the war. The data also show that the figure of the ‘damaged man’ appeared in wartime literature much earlier than has hitherto been claimed, and that during the 1914–18 period, this ‘damage’ was predominantly physical, rather than psychological. The use of shell shock in war literature published from 1914 to 1918 is examined to reflect on how the occlusion of shell shock in contemporary literary responses has importance for the way its undeniable existence throughout the war is taught using post-war fiction. The research discussed here surveys the cultural field, looking at how the fiction in a defined market sector presented all impairments, rather than looking for examples of particular representations within a pre-selected literary canon. This derives from the social model of disability, by scrutinising how society erects barriers and creates attitudes that marginalise impaired individuals.