Abstract

This article investigates the representation of war in terms of uselessness and waste in the fiction of Patrick White, with a particular emphasis on the short story “After Alep”, written in 1945 when the writer was enrolled in the RAF as an Intelligence Officer. By analysing the story in the light of White’s approach to the war as to “the most horrifying and wasteful period” of his life (Marr 1992: 493), the article attempts to demonstrate how the narrative devices used by White contribute to demythologize the rhetoric of the war and of war heroes in a way that may be instrumental in conveying a message of peace out of the ultimate sense of futility transmitted by any war . DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-28 Bibliography Ackland, Michael. 2002. Patrick White. Selina Samuels ed. Dictionary of Literary Biography , vol. 260, Australian Writers, 1915-1950. Detroit: Gale, 400-416. Bennett, Bruce. 2010. The Secret Life of Spies and Novelists: Herbert Dyce Murphy and Patrick White. Antonella Riem Natale & Angelo Righetti eds. Drops of Light Coalescing. Studies for Maria Teresa Bindella . Udine: Forum, 123-131. Flynn, Christine & Paul Brennan eds. 1989. Patrick White Speaks . Sydney: Primavera Press Karalis, Vrasids. 2008. Recollections of Mr Manoly Lascaris . Blackheath (NSW): Brandl & Schlesinger. Lowenthal, David. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country . Cambridge: CUP. Marr, David. 1992. Patrick White. A Life . Sydney: Vintage. Marr, David ed. 1996. Patrick White. Letters . Sydney: Vintage. McKernan, Susan. 1989. A Question of Commitment . Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Rhoden, Clare. 2012. Ruins or Foundations: Great War Literature in the Australian Curriculum. JASAL , 12, 1: 1-11. Rooney, Brigid. 2010. Public Recluse: Patrick White’s Literary-Political Returns. Elizabeth McMahon & Brigitta Olubas eds. Remembering Patrick White. Contemporary Critical Essays . Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 3-18. White, Patrick. 1945. After Alep. Jack Aistrop & Reginald Moore eds. Bugle Blast. An Anthology from the Services . London: Allen & Unwin, 147-155. White, Patrick. 1957. Voss . London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. White, Patrick. 1958 [1948]. The Aunt ’ s Story . London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. White, Patrick. 1961. Riders in the Chariot . London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. White, Patrick. 1962 [1941]. The Living and the Dead . London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. White, Patrick. 1970. The Vivisector. London: Jonathan Cape. White, Patrick. 1979. The Twyborn Affair . London: Jonathan Cape. White, Patrick. 1982. Flaws in the Glass. A Self-Portrait . New York: The Viking Press. White, Patrick. 2012 [1939]. Happy Valley . London: Jonathan Cape. White, Patrick. 2012. The Hanging Garden . London: Jonathan Cape

Highlights

  • II: This article investigates the representation of war in terms of uselessness and waste in the fiction of Patrick White, with a particular emphasis on the short story “After Alep”, written in 1945 when the writer was enrolled in the RAF as an Intelligence Officer

  • In the days of the Blitz in London, White is induced to think about the nature of heroism at war, scaling it down to a simple acceptance of the ordinariness and inevitability of death, as he appears to imply in a letter written to his New York agent, Naomi Burton: “I’m inclined to believe that heroism is probably a myth and that the ones who go out and face death are as indifferent to it as the civilians who continue to work with the planes overhead, or at most, sit under the stairs with a cup of tea” (Marr 1992: 204)

  • White’s involvement in the war machine begins with his assignment to the Postal Message Scheme of the Red Cross, which helped members of families separated by war to keep in contact. His first approach to the factuality of war is with the tragic personal and sentimental stories produced by it: families to be traced, lovers to be comforted, intimate messages to be delivered. When he is eventually appointed squadron Intelligence Officer of the R.A.F. and sent to the Middle East, Egypt and Greece, his duties continue to exempt him from active service

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Summary

Introduction

II: This article investigates the representation of war in terms of uselessness and waste in the fiction of Patrick White, with a particular emphasis on the short story “After Alep”, written in 1945 when the writer was enrolled in the RAF as an Intelligence Officer.

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Conclusion

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