Enduring Captivity
French POW Narratives of World War II
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12914593 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher D Lloyd (0000-0003-0575-7793, Durham University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 24-39 |
| Publication date | 2013-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of War and Culture Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-6272 • E-ISSN: 1752-6280 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/1752627212z.0000000003 |
| OpenAlex | W2134179584 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
The existence of thousands of post-war novels and autobiographical narratives written about the Second World War in French, many of them critical of the conventional myths and stereotypes bolstered by the political class and media establishment, shows the need for individuals and the sub-groups to which they belong to bear witness to traumatic experiences and to retrieve memories crucial to their identity and recognition as survivors, combatants, or spectators of overwhelming events. The purpose of this essay is to examine the contribution made by narratives of captivity to this process of individual and collective adjustment and reconciliation to defeat and humiliation. One immediate consequence of the 1940 armistice was the surrender and capture of some 1.8 million French soldiers, many of whom remained in German captivity for the rest of the war. Although some 500 mainly literary texts by or about French prisoners of war have been published, few of these narratives have attracted much notice, let alone detailed critical study. My aim here is to analyse a small but representative sample of fictional and semi-autobiographical accounts of captivity, concentrating mainly on authors such as Ambrière, Boulle, Guérin, Hyvernaud, Lanoux, and Perret, whose experience of captivity is presented in works that combine historical testimony with imaginative and innovative writing. Collectively, such works make a significant contribution to our understanding of how ordinary soldiers came to terms with the war and how they strove to communicate this to post-war generations; they also sometimes reveal how the French experience and cultural representation of World War II differ significantly from Anglo-American perceptions
Aesthetics · Art · Captivity · German · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Surrender · Witness · World War II · Classics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Military, Security, and Education Studies · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |