Journal Screenshot

International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2222-6990

The Depiction of Hegemonic Masculinity Personae in World War 1 Poetry: A Review Paper

Tarik M. Sh. Hamadneh, Radzuwan Ab. Rashid, Hanita Hanim Ismail

http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v14-i7/22312

Open access

This paper is a review focused on exploring the hegemonic masculinity (HM) and its use in WWI poetry. More specifically, it explored how the available previous literature tackled the concept HM in WW1 poetry. HM was central in literary works during the Great War where the idea of masculinity was used to attract enlisters. Nevertheless, as the war progressed, the soldiers were thrust in trenches and killing fields realised that they had to fight to stay alive. This review paper selected relevant previous studies published from 2005 to 2024 as they discussed the concept hegemonic masculinity and its use in WW1 poetry. These studies were reviewed qualitatively based on pre-determined themes namely i) Hegemonic Masculinity in Pro-War Poems; ii) Hegemonic Masculinity in Anti-War Poems; and iii) Hegemonic Masculine Persona and war experience. The findings reported that the available studies elucidated that the concept was used as propaganda in pro-war poetry, and as a denial device in anti-war poetry. The findings also showed that the war and its complexities affected the soldiers’ attitudes towards the concept prompting them to use it as an act of defiance. It is hoped that this paper opens the stage for the future research and offers interpretations of the previous literature of the same field.

Adams, M. S. (2015). Herbert read and the fluid memory of the first world war: Poetry, prose and polemic. Historical Research, 88(240), 333–354. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12075
Al-Joulan, N. (2011). Incurable sores on innocent tongues: the language of pain in wwi poetry. Cross-cultural Communication, 7(2), 109-115.
https://doi.org/10.3968/j.ccc.1923670020110702.013
Altunsoy, A. G. ?. (2017). Three soldier-poets: Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas and Isaac Rosenberg. SEFAD, 2017(37), 361–370.
Anievas, A. (2013). 1914 in world historical perspective: The “uneven” and “combined” origins of World War I. European Journal of International Relations, 19(4), 721–746. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066111427613
Araujo, A. D. (2014). Jessie Pope, Wilfred Owen, and the politics of pro patria mori in World War I poetry. Media, War & Conflict, 7(3), 326–341.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635214550259
Barber, Nicola, (2003). World War I: The Western Front. Black Rabbit Books. ISBN: 1583402683, 9781583402689.
Barham, P. (2014). Citizenship, Masculinity and Mental Health in the First World War. Heroism and the Changing Character of War, 305–323.
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137362537_19
Barrett, F. J. (1996). The organizational construction of hegemonic masculinity: The case of the US Navy. Gender, Work & Organization, 3(3), 129-142. Retrieved from https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/41314
Bingham, R. J. (2017). The ‘making of a soldier’: Masculinity and soldier hood as portrayed in the New Zealand school journal, 1907-1925. Citizenship, Social and Economic Education, 16(3), 174–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/2047173417740715
Campbell, E. (2018). How Does Hegemonic Masculinity Influence Wartime Sexual Violence??E-International Relations, 1–8.
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking theConcept. Gender & Society, 19(6), 829–859.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205278639
Angelis, D. I. (2016). From Propaganda to Private Grief: Rudyard Kipling and World War I. Le Simplegadi, XIV (15), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.17456/simple-29
Hamadneh, Sh., T. M., Rashid, R. Ab. & Ismail, H. H. (2022). The Innovative Use of Hegemonic Masculinity Concept in WWI Poetry. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change,16(1), 431-447.
https://www.ijicc.net/images/Vol_16/Iss1/16138_Ismail_2022_E_R.pdf
Hinojosa, R. (2010). Doing Hegemony: Military, Men, and Constructing a Hegemonic Masculinity. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 18(2), 179–194.
https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.1802.179
Hutchings, K. (2008). Making sense of masculinity and war. Men and Masculinities, 10(4), 389–404. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X07306740
Kendall, T. (2007). The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry. Oxford University Press
Kate, K. & Trudi T. (2011). Literature and music of the First World War. First World War Studies, 2(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475020.2011.555467
Kingsley, K. S. (1999). Gender and Power in Britain 1640-1990 (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203006672
Kent, S. (1999). Gender and Power in Britain 1640-1990 (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203006672
Nelson, E. (2007). Victims of war: The First World War, returned soldiers, and understandings of domestic violence in Australia. Journal of Women’s History, 19(4), 83–106. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2007.0068
Nye, R. A. (2007). Western Masculinities in War and Peace. American Historical Review, 112(2), 417–438. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.112.2.41
Penny, W. K. (2011). A tragic harp: Ritual, irony and myth in the war poetry of Wilfred Owen. Language and Literature, 20(2), 151–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947010397846
Poynor, D. (2019). Meeting the Enemy in World War I Poetry: Cognitive Dissonance as a Vehicle for Theme. Humanities, 8(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/h8010030
Roper, M. (2005). Between Manliness and Masculinity: The “War Generation” and the Psychology of Fear in Britain, 1914–1950. Journal of British Studies, 44(2), 343–362. doi:10.1086/427130
Ul Haq, I., & Rashid, U. (2018). Masculinities: Tracing the trajectories of gender performance in war poetry. Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research, 7(2), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.17583/MCS.2018.3122

Hamadneh, T. M. Sh., Ab. Rashid, R., & Ismail, H. H. (2024). The Depiction of Hegemonic Masculinity Personae in World War 1 Poetry: A Review Paper. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(7), 1956–1964.