Alasdair Menmuir
The University of Sheffield, UK
Reactions to Conscription in D. H. Lawrence and John Rodker: A Shared Nightmare
D. H. Lawrence and John Rodker shared similarly disastrous personal experiences during the conscription effort for the First World War. Analysing Lawrence's striking chapter of his novel Kangaroo, entitled 'The Nightmare', in comparison with Rodker's long poem 'A C.O.'s Biography', I will attempt to trace similarities and divergences of reaction to a nation's mass movement into war. Through analysis of these depictions of the non-conscript or conscientious objector I will seek to extract a depiction of the modernist dissident, whose identity is essentially set in opposition to the state and against the masses. Located at the point of antipathy towards the masses and the 'herd instinct' contemporaneously theorised by Gustave Le Bon and Freud, the identity of the two modernists will be viewed as part of the crisis of selfhood engendered by the state and populace's support and activity in the Great War. Reading Lawrence and Rodker's work alongside the revolutionary philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari will provide further insight into the state's restrictions and privations as experienced by individuals in the authors' texts. Further to such philosophical supporting material, I will examine the extent to which the authors construct Deleuzo-Guattarian 'machines' that oppose or link in with particular ideas of nationhood, totalitarianism and identity. The presentation will involve a short clip from the film version of Kangaroo, directed by Tim Burstall.