Remembering Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon in Gelibolu Novels

Authors : Azer Banu KEMALOĞLU

Pages : 105-116

Doi:10.17518/canakkalearastirmalari.475828

View : 20 | Download : 10

Publication Date : 2018-10-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Gelibolu Campaign insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1915); is an inspiration for fiction writers as they delve into the  ancient and present history of the campaign in their fictional constructions. Although in  different ways the novels pay tribute to the memories and heroes of the campaign while  connecting the carnage of 1915 to the classical times, of Homer’s Troy. References to  Iliad and Odyssey appear in fictional stories representing Gelibolu battlefield as a  mythical land. T.S. Eliot’s anti-war poem The Wasteland insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1922); is echoed in novels  lamenting the loss. Besides classical examples British war poets Rupert Brooke and  Siegfried Sassoon are also remembered in fictional representations of the campaign.  Yet, the representations offer an alternative discourse sought by New Historicism  replacing the romantic and heroic representations of war with bitter and traumatic  ones. This study aims to analyse the tributes to Brooke and Sassoon in Stanton Hope’s  Richer Dust insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1925);, Bruce Scates’s On Dangerous Ground insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2012);, Rachel Billington’s  Glory insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2015);, and Peter Yeldham’s Barbed Wire and Roses insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2007); as they try to  unearth the voices of First World War poets and discuss new perspectives offered by  novelists in their understanding of the poets. Although wars consume poets besides  the intellectual and educated mass, the power of poetry is still heard and remembered  thanks to fictional representations creating a dialogue between voices of past and  present.
Keywords : Gallipoli Gelibolu, 1915, fiction, Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, New Historicism, commemoration