World War I and its Aftermath

Reaching for the Past and across the Atlantic

authored by

Jana Gohrisch

Abstract

This article focuses on the British West Indies beginning with the involvement of African Caribbean soldiers in the Great War. It challenges the enduring myth of the First World War as a predominantly white European conflict. The main part focuses on C. L. R. James, the Trinidadian historian and playwright, following his paradigmatic trajectory from the colony to the ‘mother country’ and his involvement in the protracted transnational process of decolonization after the First Word War. It concentrates on one of his political pamphlets and on his play Toussaint Louverture. The work of the British writer and left-wing political activist Nancy Cunard is also presented as another ‘outsider’ text which can further an ongoing methodological project: the re-integration and cross-fertilization of received knowledge about the war with seemingly outlying knowledge, unorthodox political commitment and challenging aesthetics to produce a richer understanding of this formative period across the Atlantic divide.

Organisation(s)

English Department

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of European Studies

Volume

51

Pages

304-317

No. of pages

14

ISSN

0047-2441

Publication date

11.2021

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441211033410 (Access: Open)