The Memory Of Body Trauma And The Loss Of Identity:Body Narrative In Hemingway’s WWI Novels

Hemingway has two novels about the First World War, namely, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, and their characters are regarded as Lost Generation. Lots of critics have noted that they are walking wounded, physical or psychological casualties of WWI, and their pointless, restless, impotent wandering is a token of modern man’s spiritual impotence. However, they haven’t attached importance to the fundamental reasons of such spiritual impotence. This thesis tries to explore the fundamental causes of their spiritual impotence from the perspective of body narrative. In fact, their memories of body trauma bleed into and disrupt their present and then cause the loss of identity. This is the chief reason that causes their "loss" and spiritual waste land.The introduction, after putting forward the major points and researching method, critically summarizes the criticism on Hemingway and classifies them into three trends: view the two novels as the reflection of Hemingway’s own war experiences; view the two novels as Hemingway’s exploration of how to live in a chaotic modern world; view the two novels as an unrelieved attack on America. However, none of them has noticed Hemingway’s rhetoric strategy of body narrative, which provides the feasibility of this thesis.Chapter one is about memories of body trauma and the loss of masculine identity. Most of the male characters in Hemingway’s First World War novels suffers body trauma, such as physical emasculation and hurts of organs. These experiences incarnate into their memory and interrupt their present life, thus, they lose will, social domination and physical features of masculinity, all of which are constituents of masculine identity.Chapter two is about memories of body trauma and the loss of feminine identity. The female characters also have memories of body trauma, most of which are about their husbands or the males closely related to them. These memories have great impact on them and caused their identity-loss. Their loss of feminine identity can be seen from their pursuit of social dominance, the loss of fertility and the loss of physical features of femininity.Chapter three is about memories of body trauma and the loss of cultural identity. Mass’s suffering of body trauma makes them suspect all the traditional values, such as glory, heroism and then, they reduces all the interpersonal relationship into an "exchanging principle". Moreover, they became suspicious of the Christian belief.The conclusion puts the identity-loss in the context of modern civilization and modernism and finds that through the narration of loss, Hemingway expresses his negative attitude to the modern civilization. He thinks it is the modern civilization that causes the chaotic living environment. Besides, the characters’melancholic response to their suffering is also a collective condition of the modernism.