One of the questions we’re most frequently asked by students who will be joining us as first years in the autumn term is ‘”What reading do we need to do to prepare for the course?” All of the modules that you will be taking in the first year have reading lists, of course, but the vast majority of material on them is part of a publishers’ package purchased by the university library that you will only have access to after you start university. So, to get you going, our Admissions Tutor Dr Katy Gibbons has written the following blog offering guidance on things you can read or listen to to over the summer months. Whatever area or period of history you’re interested in, there’s lots here to peak your interests!
If you’re looking for some history-related reading/listening for the summer, you’ve come to the right place! You’ll find here some suggestions from the UoP History team of things that we have enjoyed, and that can spark some thinking and reflecting on history, and on the connections between the past and the present. If you read/listen carefully, you might also spot some of the historians who will be teaching you in September!
These novels engage with the past in a number of different ways. They also cover topics and themes that you will come across in the course of your degree.
Please note – you are not obliged or expected to buy any of these, but if you are interested, perhaps you could look out for a second hand copy, or visit your local public library!
In the second in our series on First World War sources, second-year UoP student Charlotte Lewis discusses what can be learned from a letter by famed WWI poet Wilfred Owen to his mother Susan.
Whilst Wilfred Owen’s poetry is well known for describing the horrors of the First World War, his letters to his mother, Susan Owen, give the reader an insight into Owen’s personal experiences and reactions hiding behind his poetry. In light of this, this blog will focus on a letter written by Owen in February 1917 to his mother.[1] Through the analysis of this letter, this blog will try to convey not only its significant use in describing the conditions of the First World War, but also how it provides us with an understanding of Owen and his emotions reflected in his poetry, in particular his renowned poem Dulce et Decorum Est.[2]
The value of the content of Owen’s letter can only truly be understood when the conditions of trench warfare at this time have been fully acknowledged. Ashworth recognises that very early on in the war, at the end of the first battle of Ypres, the primary mode of warfare at the western front was static trench warfare.[3] During this time, armies were largely deadlocked and “movement was more often measured in yards than miles”.[4] This is clearly demonstrated in the opening sentence of this letter as Owen describes how “so little happens that I can’t keep up my instalments of blood-and-thunder literature”.[5] This line also reveals Owen’s relationship with descriptive writing as he writes “blood-and-thunder literature”, a genre of literature in which his Poem Dulce et Decorum Est conforms to in its description of the daily horrors experienced at the Western Front.[6] Potter argues that his letters from this time are “as evocative, shocking and profoundly moving as any of the poetry that his experiences inspired”.[7] For example, both the poem Dulce et Decorum Est and this letter portray a graphic imagery of fatigued, limping soldiers.[8] Owen describes in his letter how they marched “miserably slowly” as “some of the men could not wear boots” due to frost-bitten feet.[9] According to Ashworth, a trench foot was swollen and always painful.[10] There are strong parallels between this letter and the experiences described in Dulce et Decorum Est, supporting Rivers’ argument that his letters can be used as sources for his poems. However, whilst this letter does show clear similarities to his poem Dulce et decorum Est, it also shows a possible motivation for the creation of the poem.
A case of trench foot which required plastic surgery, Wellcome Institute photo no. L0025834
A theme presented in Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est is his dissatisfaction with the portrayal of the western front through propaganda. In private through his letters, and public through his poem, Owen highlights his contempt for the image of war portrayed by the home front. Bebbington recalls that of the two British Museum drafts of Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, “one has the ‘dedication’ to ‘Jessie Pope, etc’”.[11] Pope frequently wrote jingoistic poetry as propaganda for newspapers and often portrayed an image of the war which was the polar opposite to that described by Owen in his poetry.[12] In his letter, Owen comments on the propaganda shown by the Daily Mirror, and how it “still depicts the radiant smiles of Tommies”.[13] This could be an indirect comment on the work of Jessie Pope and so this letter could act as a source for understanding the initial dedication of the poem to her, as well as the running theme of anger towards softened portrayals of war experiences which discredited and undermined the heroic nature of the soldiers. The perusal of this letter allows us to understand some of the multitude of emotions behind Owen as a poet through his description of soldiers’ daily experiences, whilst representing the realities of Trench warfare.[14]
The 2nd Manchesters capturing a German battery at Francilly Selency, April 1917 by Richard Woodville
However, when using this letter as a source, there are a number of considerations to take into account when assessing its use in understanding Owen’s experience of the war and associated emotions hiding behind his poetry.[15] Kerr acknowledges that Owen had an incredibly strong relationship with his mother, as he suggests that Susan Owen was the family’s still point and an “inner sanctuary”; one aspect of his devotion to her could be his willingness to “protect her from distress”.[16] Subsequently, we must consider whether Owen has refrained from describing the true nature of his experience at the time of the letter in order to protect his mother, and so this letter is less likely to emphasise the whole picture; reading the vivid details in the poem Dulce et Decorum Est it is possible to recognise that this letter might not contain the whole truth.[17] However, by using this letter as a source for understanding Owen’s poem, as well as understanding experiences of the First World War in general, it can be very useful in as much as it avoids popular memory.[18] Roper highlights that frequently other WWI sources such as memoirs and autobiographies can be influenced by public narratives created by popular fiction and television of what it means to be a soldier hero, whereas a letter is arguably free from this bias as it captures the moment in order to “communicate the self to the recipient”.[19] Thus, it would be beneficial to analyse Owen’s other letters alongside this letter in order to grasp a better perception.
Through analysis of Owen’s letter to his mother in 1917 we are able to develop a clearer understanding of Owen and his experiences of the war, providing a source for interpreting the emotions and messages conveyed through his poetry, in particular Dulce et Decorum est.[20] This letter offers a unique portrayal of the realities of warfare as well as an insight into Owen’s relationship with the war as a result of his experiences.[21] Whilst we are unable to gain a full understanding of Owen’s experiences through this single letter, it does offer a significant basis for a first understanding of Owen, and so we would benefit greatly from a comparative analysis of other letters written by Owen.
[1] Wilfred Owen, “‘Sunday February 18 1917’, Harold Owen and John Bell”, Wilfred Owen: Collected letters, (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 435-436.
[2] Bryan Rivers, “Wilfred Owen’s Letter No. 486 as a Source for “Dulce et Decorum Est”, in ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, vol. 21, (2014): 29.
[3] Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914-1918: The Live and Let Live System (London: Pan Books, 2000), 2.
[11] W.G. Bebbington, “Jessie Pope and Wilfred Owen” in Ariel: a review of international English literature, Vol. 3, (1972): 82.
[12] Anderson Araujo, “Jessie Pope, Wilfred Owen, and the politics of pro patria mori in World War I poetry” in Media, War & Conflict, Vol. 7, (2014): 337
[14] Michele Kaltemback, “Wilfred Owen’s personality as revealed by his letters”, in Caliban, Vol. 10, (1973): 43; Owen, “’Sunday February 18 1917’”, 435-436.
[18] Michael Roper, “Re-remembering the Soldier Hero: the psychic and social construction of Memory in Personal Narratives of the Great War” in History Workshop Journal, vol. 50 (2000): 183
[19] Roper, “Re-remembering the Soldier Hero, 183; Penny Summerfield, Histories of the Self: Personal narratives and Historical practice, (Florida: Routledge, 2018), 22.
After a talk with his eventual dissertation supervisor Dr Katy Gibbons, third-year UoP student Richard Grainger was inspired to enrich his knowledge of twentieth-century orientalism in a dissertation which applied his theoretical understanding to the study of a period when Islamic nations were the more dominant powers.
The university’s history department prides itself on delivering a socially and culturally favoured degree curriculum. The emphasis on ‘history from below’ has been particularly enjoyable from my view. One particular historical approach of interest is postcolonial studies, which focus on the cultural impact of empire on the colonised. Edward Said has been influential, and often controversial within this area of study. In Said’s Orientalism, he argues that the Western has to a certain degree always imposed a degree of positional superiority on the East. He argues this transcends all walks of life, both politically and culturally.
Orientalist art often depicts the East as feminine, and by implication inferior to the masculine West. A Lady Receiving Visitors (The Reception), John Frederick Lewis, 1873, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, Accession No. B1981.25.417
My interest in Edward Said’s Orientalism was stimulated primarily from a second-year unit on International Politics of the Middle East. With a focus on the last hundred years or so, the unit gave me an ever increased understanding of British and French dominance and duplicity in their relationships with Islamic nations. As this module focused on the First World War, this was initially my first thought chronologically for my dissertation. Only after a conversation with one of the early modernists in the department, Katy Gibbons,did I begin to look at earlier periods for my research.
Fellah Women Drawing Water, Jean-Leon Gerôme, 1873-5, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Williamstown, Mass., Accession no. 1955.52
I became interested in studying an earlier period where Western dominance was not so self-assured. Whilst the power of Britain and France was considerable in the lead up and aftermath to the First world war, I was interested in a study which went ‘against the grain’ and challenged narratives. The early modern period was a complex period of geo-political reality, and it felt that a study in Elizabeth’s England would be an interesting angle to compare Said’s theory to. As Orientalism was said to have filtered throughout society, I wanted to use two distinctive models to establish whether relations between England and the Islamic powers could be seen as Orientalist. I wanted to understand what England’s place in the world was really like in the 16th Century, and how Englishmen reacted to it.
In order to do so, I wanted to compare both the real-politics and the cultural aspect in a way which was accessible. I therefore chose to analyse English playwriting regarding the Ottomans, Turks, and Islam, and the message or anxieties made visable by playwrights. In comparison, I wanted to see if Queen Elizabeth felt the same way in her diplomatic correspondence with the leaders of Eastern states.
Queen Elizabeth I, Armada portrait: the imperial crown and globe depicted in the painting are thought to signify the pursuit of imperial power.
It was crucial before doing so to understand the geo-political reality, which was that post-Reformation England had to adjust to a new situation in the late sixteenth century which allied themselves with anti-Catholic powers. Elizabeth worked hard to cultivate commercial relationships with the Ottomans and the Moroccans, who had much more extensive empires in their own right, but needed tin, lead and other materials from England. Whilst English expansion was at this stage limited to a claim to land in Ireland, the Ottomans were multi-ethnic, trans-continent and at the peak of their powers towards the end of the century.
I chose three plays right at the end of the 1500s to analyse. William Shakespeare’s Othello (1603); Thomas Heywood’s, The Fair Maid of the West Part 1 (1597-1603); and Thomas Dekker’s Lusts Dominion (1600). These plays would ‘Other’ Muslim characters, but also allow for audience agency, and allowed me to reflect on how Englishmen saw their place in the world.
To compare, I wanted to find diplomatic correspondence between Elizabeth and elites in Morocco and the Ottoman courts to establish whether these fears were shared, but also whether England tried to impose any superiority. As with many diplomatic exchanges, I found that both sides wanted to seek similarities. Protestant England was against the idolatry of the Catholic church, and found commonality with Islamic powers in this regard. Most crucial to dispel Said’s theory of Western superiority was the exchange of gifts which lubricated these alliances, with the more predominant gifts coming from London.
Finding sources was thoroughly enjoyable. I enjoyed reading plays, letters and pamphlets depicting the East from an English perspective. I had to tread carefully not to leap to texts which confirmed my narrative, and had to really think hard about whether they contributed to a general sentiment, or allowed for audience agency. The ambiguities themselves made the project especially enjoyable.
The moorish Ambassador to Elizabeth I, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud, 1600, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford on Avon, PFH1166942
I found that firstly, English positional superiority did not apply to the late sixteenth century over the East. Secondly, contemporaries responded to this situation in their representation of the East, which served to define English national character. What became clear was that contemporary visions of England’s place in the world would vary from fear and othering of the East, to a proactive global vision articulated and pieced together by the Queen herself.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith, her Maid and Holofernes’ Head, 1613, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Members of the History and English Literature teams at the University of Portsmouth are excited to be launching “Disrupted Authority” – a research project that focuses on the early modern period (1450-1700) and brings together the work of English Literature’s Dr Jessica Dyson and Dr Bronwen Price, and History’s Dr Maria Cannon, Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Fiona McCall.
This is a particularly timely project in the light of the current shifting and unpredictable political landscape. The key themes of this project – authority, power, gender, religion – invite comparisons with how people and groups today understand and represent their positions and rights within political and social structures. The early modern period has never looked more relevant!
Common to all our research is an awareness of the significance of the language used to describe authorities and those acting outside or against them. As current political discourse demonstrates, words matter. This project will explore how language itself, particularly relating to madness, martyrdom and misogyny, holds the potential to disrupt and construct authority.
The project is interested in the ways in which emotion, language, behaviour, performance, and writing set out to, or inadvertently, disrupt dominant modes of thought, governance and religious belief and, in turn, helped to shape authority in these areas. Bronwen’s research on the disruptions of women’s writing to the traditional authoritative modes of thought and production offers a literary counterpart to Katy and Fiona’s historical consideration of gender and religious authority at a parish, national and international level. Maria’s work on family structures and household authority aligns with Jessica’s work on theatrical representation authorities, as both consider ways in which emotions can be seen to disrupt or reclaim authority.
We’re looking to reach outside the University of Portsmouth to build a network of scholars working on early modern disrupted authority, and work with non-HEI partners to bring our research and its contemporary relevance to a wider audience. We’ll be running a series of workshops and networking events to facilitate these interactions – details to follow. Key outcomes of the project will include an open access database, ‘Religious Conflict in the Parish, 1645-1662’, which will make available searchable data drawn from legal records.
If you’d like to take part in our 2020 conference, ‘Disruptions and Continuities in gender roles and authority 1450-1750’, please see the cfp here. Future events will be announced here.
The new Disrupted Authority research group at the University of Portsmouth – SASHPL are organising an interdisciplinary conference linking issues of gender and authority in the early modern period, to be held at Portsmouth on the 29-30 June 2020. One keynote speaker will be Professor Ann Hughes, from Keele University, whose book Gender and the English Revolution is essential reading for those wanting to understand issues of gender in the seventeenth century. There is a call for papers for academics and postgraduates, across a range of disciplines, to send in abstracts for potential twenty-minute papers to present at the conference.
If you want to know more, see the conference webpage for details or have a chat with Dr Fiona McCall or Dr Bronwen Price who are organising the conference, in cooperation with their colleagues in the new research group, Dr Jessica Dyson, Dr Katy Gibbons and Dr Maria Cannon, about which we hope to say more on this blog shortly.
In this blog, part of a series of posts looking at sites of historical interest in Portsmouth, Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, reveals that Park Building, location for History’s Open Days, was once home to the city’s central library. Rob’s research focuses on society’s leisure practices, and he teaches a number of units that focus on one of the most popular leisure pursuits of the first half of the twentieth century, going to the cinema.
Portsmouth’s first public library didn’t open until 1883, much later than most other sizeable cities in England. Indeed, the country’s first public library was opened over thirty years earlier, in Manchester in September 1852. Over the next few years many major towns and cities followed Manchester’s lead and opened public libraries to serve the country’s growing number of readers.
Manchester Public Library
When I first started researching the country’s public library history I was somewhat surprised to see that Portsmouth was so late in getting in on the act. There appears to have been an initial reluctance among the city’s civic elites in setting up a free library service, with the local newspaper reporting in 1944 that ‘in the early days of the [free library] movement Portsmouth was not “library conscious”.’ [1] Apparently, opposition towards a public library service came from the city’s ratepayers who ‘opposed all attempts by the Borough Council to inaugurate a library service’. [2] That opposition was ‘gradually worn down’, and after the first public library proved to be a well-liked and much-visited amenity, Portsmouth’s civic leaders embarked upon providing branch libraries in many other areas of the city.
Such was the popularity of the first library that the Council soon had to look for an alternative location in which to accommodate all of its visitors (as well as the thousands of books it needed to house). Portsmouth ‘central’ library has, therefore, had a number of homes, but since 1890 it has been located at the heart of the city’s civic centre. Between 1890 and 1907 the library was located in the New Town Hall (site of the current Guildhall). After that it was housed in Park Building, which was also home to the city’s Municipal College. The library is currently located in Guildhall Square, next to the Civic Offices and just a stone’s throw away from the Guildhall.
Park Building, Portsmouth
Continuing the long history of education on that site, Park Building is now home to the University and the venue for our Faculty’s Open Days. So, when you’re next in the building – as a visitor at an Open Day or as a current student – try to imagine it filled with books and bustling with avid population of readers from across the city!
