Title
Recovery from the Great War: Pastoral Space in J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country and Ernest Hemingway’s "Big Two-Hearted River"
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Compares Hemingway’s short story to Carr’s 1980 novel, noting similarities in each author’s use of the pastoral tradition to heal the psychological trauma of World War I. While both protagonists make their separate peace with the war, their distinct identification with place, Hemingway’s sacred river and Carr’s enduring English village, point to vastly different themes. For Carr, the redemptive memory of the past gives his protagonist strength to face the future but for Nick Adams the past points to a future haunted by menace and death.
Published in
Papers on Language & Literature
Volume
52
Issue
3
Date
Summer 2016
Pages
211-229
COinS
Citation
Scruggs, Charles. “Recovery from the Great War: Pastoral Space in J. L. Carr’s A Month in the Country and Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Big Two-Hearted River.’” Papers on Language & Literature 52, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 211-29.