Dominion Cartoon Satire as Trench Culture Narratives: Complaints,Endurance and Stoicism |
| |
Authors: | Jane Chapman Dan Ellin |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Lincoln University and Research Associate Wolfson College Cambridge, Cambridge, UKjlc69@cam.ac.uk;3. Warwick University, Warwick, UK |
| |
Abstract: | Abstract Although Dominion soldiers’ Great War field publications are relatively well known, the way troops created cartoon multi-panel formats in some of them has been neglected as a record of satirical social observation. Visual narrative humour provides a ‘bottom-up’ perspective for journalistic observations that in many cases capture the spirit of the army in terms of stoicism, buoyed by a culture of internal complaints. Troop concerns expressed in the early comic strips of Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and British were similar. They shared a collective editorial purpose of morale boosting among the ranks through the use of everyday narratives that elevated the anti-heroism of the citizen soldier, portrayed as a transnational everyman in the service of empire. The regenerative value of disparagement humour provided a redefinition of courage as the very act of endurance on the Western Front. |
| |
Keywords: | First World War Canadian Australian New Zealander trench culture cartoons trench newspapers humour courage Western Front |
|
|