Wilfred Owen, the war years, 1915-1918 & his posthumous portrayal, 1919-2002.

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Matthews, Barry Andrew (2011). Wilfred Owen, the war years, 1915-1918 & his posthumous portrayal, 1919-2002. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The tale of Wilfred Owen is a simple tale badly told thus far.

For such a high profile figure of the 20th Century, it is surprising that so little biographical detail is known about the man behind the war poetry. Owen’s public persona has benefitted through largely literary critical investigations of his poetry highlighting some exceptional war poems. What writings exist are predominantly worshipful and eulogising. His official biography is hagiographic in tone. His reputation has grown because there has been a narrow focus on an area of his work that is praiseworthy and that has been repeatedly quarried. No professional historian has ever written at length about him. This thesis attempts to show Owen’s idealised portrayals are inaccurate and contrived by exploring his war record and his private life in detail. The thesis highlights unpublished and surprising revelations.

Owen’s transition from poetic obscurity in 1918 to iconic status by the close of the twentieth century is a remarkable transformation involving his mother’s efforts as a choreographer of commemoration, brother Harold’s role as manipulator of the memory and subsequently the period of custodial trusteeship that has shielded and denied Owen’s homosexuality at the expense of truth. The thesis will address the selectivity of facts, the suppression of information, Owen’s political adoption and the destruction of primary evidence through which Owen’s image was effected.

The thesis seeks to demonstrate that in his life Owen was never quite what he seemed, in death he never seemed quite what he had been.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):