Title
Retrospective Radicalism: Politics and History in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Argues that a close examination of the novel’s focus on war and fascism reveals both an underlying political allegory and the author’s leftist sympathies. Identifies other early works with leftist leanings such as “In Another Country” and “A Way You’ll Never Be” before exploring the significance of the novel’s use of specific place names (e.g. Turin and Imola) and inclusion of socioeconomic commentary. Reads the deaths of Catherine and the baby as signaling the failure of revolutionary possibility and Frederic’s response as an indication of Hemingway’s understanding of his own complicity as a Red Cross volunteer in that political defeat.
Published in
College Literature
Volume
44
Issue
1
Date
Winter 2017
Pages
1-29
Citation
Foley, Barbara and Peter Gardner. “Retrospective Radicalism: Politics and History in Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.” College Literature 44, no. 1 (Winter 2017): 1-29.