IMAGES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR: FORD'S 'IN OCTOBER 1914' READ IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY GERMAN WRITERS

Reciting Ford Madox Ford's war poem 'In October 1914' in Münster/Westphalia in 2004 and 2006, helped shape the idea behind this essay which is to read Ford's seminal text through poetry and prose produced by some of his German contemporaries. For war writings by Hermann Löns, Aug...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Ford Madox Ford studies (Online) 2007-01, Vol.6, p.179-188
Main Author: Rademacher, Jörg W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
PART TWO: CONTEMPORARIES AND CONFRÈRES
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Summary:Reciting Ford Madox Ford's war poem 'In October 1914' in Münster/Westphalia in 2004 and 2006, helped shape the idea behind this essay which is to read Ford's seminal text through poetry and prose produced by some of his German contemporaries. For war writings by Hermann Löns, August Stramm, and Clara Ratzka read today as if they had been comparing notes with Ford Madox Ford, though there is no evidence for any contacts. Ford, like Ratzka, survived the First World War, while Löns and Stramm were killed on the Western and Eastern Fronts respectively. While Ratzka sought to see German society as a whole, using a deceptively simple style of writing, her vision converges with Ford's in terms of foresight, whereas Löns and Stramm in their last months share the point of view Ford puts forward both from afar in 'In October 1914' and in the Parade's End tetralogy based upon his own experience.
ISSN:1569-4070
1879-6621