MACMILLAN Reporting the First World War in the Liminal Zone: British and American Eyewitness Accounts from the Western Front

This book deals with an aspect of the Great War that has been largely overlooked: the war reportage written based on British and American authors’ experiences at the Western Front. It focuses on how the liminal experience of the First World War was portrayed in a series of works of literary journalism at different stages of the conflict, from the summer of 1914 to the Armistice in November 1918. Sara Prieto explores a number of representative texts written by a series of civilian eyewitness who have been passed over in earlier studies of literature and journalism in the Great War. The texts under discussion are situated in the ‘liminal zone’, as they were written in the middle of a transitional period, half-way between two radically different literary styles: the romantic and idealising ante bellum tradition, and the cynical and disillusioned modernist school of writing. They are also the product of the various stages of a physical and moral journey which took several authors into the fantastic albeit nightmarish world of the Western Front, where their understanding of reality was transformed beyond anything they could have anticipated. Review Awarded the Enrique García Díaz Research Award from the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN). Review “Reporting the First World War in the Liminal Zone offers not only a pleasant reading, but also an invaluable contribution to the study of war reportage written by British and American journalists during the First World War. All in all, Prieto’s research provides the reader with an original and innovative approach to texts that are exhaustively examined and put into dialogue with a solid theoretical framework.” (Macarena García-Avello, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain) “Sara Prieto’s ground-breaking study of literary journalism is both timely and rich. In a comprehensive and enlightening study, Prieto takes this neglected form of war writing and convincingly demonstrates the vital role it played in shaping our understanding of the First World War. Prieto explores literary journalism as a key element of the liminal space between the romantic and the modernist, to provide a unique insight into the experience of the First World War and its legacy.” (Angela K. Smith, University of Plymouth, UK) “Soldiers were not the only witnesses to the horrors of the First World War. As Sara Prieto shows, journalists also risked their lives and reputations in their search for the truth about the war and its meaning. This book is a fascinating glimpse into the dangerous, harrowing and influential world of the men and women who reported on the war and shaped public opinion.” (Hazel Hutchison, University of Aberdeen, UK) Review Awarded the Enrique García Díaz Research Award from the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN). From the Back Cover This book deals with an aspect of the Great War that has been largely overlooked: the war reportage written based on British and American authors’ experiences at the Western Front. It focuses on how the liminal experience of the First World War was portrayed in a series of works of literary journalism at different stages of the conflict, from the summer of 1914 to the Armistice in November 1918. Sara Prieto explores a number of representative texts written by a series of civilian eyewitness who have been passed over in earlier studies of literature and journalism in the Great War. The texts under discussion are situated in the ‘liminal zone’, as they were written in the middle of a transitional period, half-way between two radically different literary styles: the romantic and idealising ante bellum tradition, and the cynical and disillusioned modernist school of writing. They are also the product of the various stages of a physical and moral journey which took several authors into the fantastic albeit nightmarish world of the Western Fro