The Peculiar Sanity of War: Hysteria in the Literature of World War I - Hardcover

During wartime, paranoia, gossip, and rumor become accepted forms of behavior and dominant literary tropes. ""The Peculiar Sanity of War"" examines the impact of war hysteria on definitions of sanity and on standards of behavior during World War I. Drawing upon Joseph Conrads comprehensive understanding of wars impact on soldiers and civilians alike, and extending Michel Foucaults construction of madness and reason, Kingsbury expands the definition of war neurosis to include peculiar sanity at home as well as on the front lines. While other investigations of World War I consider shell shock to be the only definable war madness, Kingsbury is the first to build a powerful argument around the insanity of the home fronts vilification of the enemy. Ultimately, Kingsburys study establishes peculiar sanity, among civilians and soldiers, as an inevitable response to wars madness. ""The Peculiar Sanity of War"" begins by locating the roots of war mania in Edwardian hypocrisy, then moves on to examine the way propaganda operates in nontraditional texts, such as housekeeping guides, and in the novels of Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, H. G. Wells, Rebecca West, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, and H. D. Celia. Kingsburys eloquent and moving book...brings together war and madness in unexpected ways. Beginning with a phrase from Joseph Conrad, she diagnoses the condition of a culture gone awry, a peculiar sanity...from Laurence Davies' foreword.

Kingsbury is visiting instructor of English at Florida State University. She was awarded the Conrad Young Scholar Award from the Joseph Conrad Society of America.

Laurence Davies is Research Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College and co-author of Cunninghame Graham: A Critical Biography.