A Study of the use of Allusion in the War Literature of Frederic Manning, David Jones and Edmund Blunden

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to show the diverse ways in which these authors use the allusions which pervade their First World War literature. Frederic Manning, in The Middle Parts of Fortune, uses Shakespearian allusions which are external to the main text; David Jones, in In Parenthesis, uses a variety of allusions which are organic to the text; the allusions of Edmund Blunden, in Undertones of War, are predominantly from eighteenth-century literature and are found in the text and structure of the work. Although each work, in itself, is complex because of the associations evoked by the allusions, the method of presenting the allusions varies in complexity from one to the other. Taken together, the allusions and the method of presenting them broaden the scope of the works, and elevate them to a position where their significance is universal.</p>