This term paper focuses on how American nurses, representing white middle-class women, coped with the trauma nursing in the First World War caused. In addition, it will be discussed how they dealt with societal constraints concerning women in general and women in the nursing profession in particular.
Women have long been neglected as authors about the First World War. Things changed during the last three decades when more and more researchers began to uncover women’s voices. They have argued that women present an important part in the canon of First World War literature. Even though it started as European war, some American women joined the war effort, long before the United States entered the conflict. Mostly these women were employed as nurses in army hospitals along the frontline. For nurses the First World War somehow meant a new sense of freedom, even though they sticked to the domestic world of caretaking.
The study shows how the mud of the western front provided an opportunity to rise from the limited domestic sphere to the battlefield of the modern world. "The memoirs The Forbidden Zone" by Mary Borden and "The Backwash of War" by Ellen La Motte are among the best known female literary works and will serve as examples to show she characteristics of female wartime writing. While women could not directly attest to the experience of the trenches, they were the only ones able to explore war’s all-consuming effects. Therefore, women’s voices like Borden’s and La Motte’s deserve much more attention, as their texts hold a not yet fully discovered truth and richness of accounts of the First World War.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 American Women at War
2.1 Nursing the Nation
2.2 Nursing and Suffrage
2.3 Nursing in War
2.4 Aftermath of the Great War
3 Approaching Female War Writing
3.1 The Memoir as Meaning Maker
3.2 Ellen La Motte —The Backwash of War
3.3 Mary Borden — The Forbidden Zone
4 Conclusion
5 Bibliography
Objectives and Themes
This paper examines how American nurses during the First World War navigated the challenges of military service and societal expectations, while also analyzing their contributions to female war literature as a means of processing trauma.
- The role of professional nursing in early 20th-century feminism.
- The connection between wartime nursing and the women's suffrage movement.
- The unique challenges and working conditions of nurses at the front.
- The development of the memoir as a genre for articulating wartime trauma.
- The critical analysis of works by Ellen La Motte and Mary Borden.
Excerpt from the Book
Ellen La Motte —The Backwash of War
When he could stand it no longer, he fired a revolver up through the roof of his mouth, but he made a mess of it. The ball tore out his left eye, and then lodged somewhere under his skull, so they bundled him into an ambulance and carried him, cursing and screaming, to the nearest field hospital. The journey was made in double-quick time, over rough Belgian roads. To save his life, he must reach the hospital without delay, and if he was bounced to death jolting along at breakneck speed, it did not matter. That was understood. He was a deserter, and discipline must be maintained. Since he had failed in the job, his life must be saved, he must be nursed back to health, until he was well enough to be stood up against a wall and shot. This is War. (La Motte 2014: 3-4)
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: Provides an overview of the neglect of female voices in First World War literature and introduces the study's focus on American nurses and their memoirs.
2 American Women at War: Discusses the integration of women into the workforce and the military during the war, highlighting the dual identity of nurses as professionals and caregivers.
2.1 Nursing the Nation: Examines the development of the nursing profession in late 19th-century America and its importance to early feminist discourse.
2.2 Nursing and Suffrage: Analyzes the political engagement of nurses and how their professional development intersected with the struggle for women's voting rights.
2.3 Nursing in War: Details the operational realities of nurses in the First World War, focusing on training, service conditions, and the struggle to maintain professional authority.
2.4 Aftermath of the Great War: Explores the long-term impact of the war on nursing organizations and the subsequent gains in women's rights.
3 Approaching Female War Writing: Analyzes the gendered nature of war literature and why female authors were often excluded from the traditional literary canon.
3.1 The Memoir as Meaning Maker: Defines the characteristics of the First World War memoir and its efficacy as a tool for navigating trauma.
3.2 Ellen La Motte —The Backwash of War: Evaluates La Motte’s work as a critique of war, focusing on her modernist style and her blunt portrayal of suffering.
3.3 Mary Borden — The Forbidden Zone: Examines Borden's vignettes as a testament to the chaos of war, highlighting her use of detachment and fragmentation to convey traumatic experience.
4 Conclusion: Summarizes how nurses utilized writing to challenge patriarchal constraints and document the reality of modern warfare.
5 Bibliography: Lists the academic sources used to substantiate the research.
Keywords
First World War, American Nurses, Women's Suffrage, Memoirs, Trauma, Female War Writing, Ellen La Motte, Mary Borden, The Backwash of War, The Forbidden Zone, Modernism, Gender Roles, Military Medicine, Wartime Propaganda, Social Feminism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
The work focuses on the role of American nurses during the First World War and their contributions to literature through the genre of the memoir.
Which specific authors are analyzed in this research?
The research primarily analyzes the literary contributions of Ellen La Motte, author of "The Backwash of War", and Mary Borden, author of "The Forbidden Zone".
What is the main research question?
The research asks how American nurses coped with the trauma of wartime nursing and how they used their experiences and writings to challenge societal and gender-related constraints.
What methodology is employed?
The paper uses a qualitative literary analysis of historical memoirs and secondary academic research to investigate the intersection of gender, professional status, and traumatic expression.
What is covered in the main body?
The body covers the sociological context of nursing, the connection to the suffrage movement, the practical realities of serving on the front, and a detailed literary critique of key female war memoirs.
Which key terms define this work?
Key terms include wartime nursing, feminist activism, trauma literature, the Western Front, and the specific literary works of La Motte and Borden.
How did the war affect the professional identity of nurses?
The war allowed nurses to gain professional respect and travel abroad, though they often faced the challenge of being perceived as mere subordinates to physicians and surgeons.
What role does the "hand trope" play in the writing of these nurses?
The "hand trope" refers to the touch of the female hand used to comfort wounded soldiers, serving as a recurring motif in nursing literature to express compassion and the reality of the healing process.
Why were the works of Borden and La Motte often censored or criticized?
They were often criticized because their graphic, realistic, and fragmented portrayals of war contradicted the heroic, masculine narratives typical of war literature at the time.
- Citar trabajo
- Felicitas Deckert (Autor), 2020, American Nurses in the First World War. Exemplified by Female Literary Works, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1160715
