Journal article
Muddy poetics: First World War poems by Helen Saunders and Mary Borden
- Abstract:
- In its appearances in English literary history, mud is associated with dirt and disgustingness, but also with vitality, insurgence and creativity. Mud in First World War poetry, however, has been most often read as figuring ontological and epistemological crisis: the taboo and the abject. Two poems about mud written by women during the First World War permit a different interpretation. In Helen Saunders's 'A Vision of Mud' (1915) and Mary Borden's 'The Song of the Mud' (1917), mud is as fascinating as it is repellent. Blurring the boundaries between combatant and non-combatant, it serves as the inspiration for and the stuff of female creativity. It also reveals the possibilities of a critical thinking with muddiness which productively resists reductive dichotomies.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 230.1KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1080/09574042.2015.1069145
Authors
- Publisher:
- Routledge
- Journal:
- Women: A Cultural Review More from this journal
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 221-236
- Publication date:
- 2015-07-31
- Acceptance date:
- 2015-04-08
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1470-1367
- ISSN:
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0957-4042
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- UUID:
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uuid:49dc8455-ecad-4749-840f-fbea1180e1a0
- Deposit date:
-
2015-07-06
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Taylor & Francis
- Copyright date:
- 2015
- Rights statement:
- © 2015 Taylor & Francis.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Routledge at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09574042.2015.1069145
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