As is widely known, psychological trauma can be healed by integrating the traumatic event into one’s life history: for recovery to begin the sense of continuity between past and present must be restored. And this holds true for both individuals and societies. The family saga, which enjoyed a remarkable popularity in interwar Britain, often featured the Great War proving itself – thanks to its linear structure and the long time span it covers – an effective tool to process the painful experience and bridge the gap between pre- and post-war national identity. The aim of this essay is to analyse how two family novels of the ‘20s-‘30s, The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy and The Years by Virginia Woolf, worked the First World War into their texture apparently achieving very different aims.
Riannodare i fili della storia: la saga familiare e la grande guerra
Flora de Giovanni
2023
Abstract
As is widely known, psychological trauma can be healed by integrating the traumatic event into one’s life history: for recovery to begin the sense of continuity between past and present must be restored. And this holds true for both individuals and societies. The family saga, which enjoyed a remarkable popularity in interwar Britain, often featured the Great War proving itself – thanks to its linear structure and the long time span it covers – an effective tool to process the painful experience and bridge the gap between pre- and post-war national identity. The aim of this essay is to analyse how two family novels of the ‘20s-‘30s, The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy and The Years by Virginia Woolf, worked the First World War into their texture apparently achieving very different aims.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
