Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

English

Date of Award

5-2021

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Thomas H. Crofts

Committee Members

D. Michael Jones, Daniel Westover

Abstract

This thesis analyzes David Jones’s In Parenthesis to demonstrate the failed notion of chivalry, courtesy, and knighthood in modernity during and after the war. Jones’s semi-autobiographical prose poem recounting his experiences of WWI was published in 1937, nineteen years after the war ended. Jones applied the concepts of chivalry, courtesy, and knighthood to his experiences during WWI through In Parenthesis. Jones used these concepts, which originated in the classical period and the Middle Ages, to demonstrate how they have changed over time, especially given the events of WWI. The best way for Jones to demonstrate the impact of WWI was to use the medieval ideas of knighthood (which were arguably idealized up until the war) to describe how the modern world could no longer be identified with those ideals.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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