Title
Regendering War Trauma and Relocating the Abject: Catherine Barkley’s Death
Document Type
Essay
Annotation
Extended study of death’s changing cultural meaning in the aftermath of World War I, arguing that A Farewell to Arms omits, rather than simplifies, the ugliness of war. James’s detailed analysis of both the published text and its revisions contextualizes the novel historically and supports her contention that Hemingway sheltered the reader from war by excising gory details and reconfiguring male suffering in Catherine’s dramatic, violent death. In response to critical struggles to reconcile A Farewell to Arms as both a war story and a love story, James concludes that the love story serves as a metaphor for war, which can only be read by what is omitted.
Published in
The New Death: American Modernism and World War I
Date
2013
Pages
119-159
Citation
James, Pearl. “Regendering War Trauma and Relocating the Abject: Catherine Barkley’s Death.” In The New Death: American Modernism and World War I, 119-59. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013.