Paper 110A: Rewriting Trauma: Contemporary Engagement with Owen and Sassoon through Cultural Memory and Postmemory

This blog is a part of the assignment of Paper 110A: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000

Rewriting Trauma: Contemporary Engagement with Owen and Sassoon through Cultural Memory and Postmemory

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Academic Details:

Name: Rajdeep A. Bavaliya
Roll No.: 21
Enrollment No.: 5108240006
Sem.: 2
Batch: 2024-26
E-mail: rajdeepbavaliya2@gmail.com

Assignment Details:

Paper Name: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000
Paper No.: 110A
Paper Code: 22403
Unit: 3 - War Poetry
Topic: Rewriting Trauma: Contemporary Engagement with Owen and Sassoon through Cultural Memory and Postmemory
Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Submitted Date: April 17, 2025

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Reading time: 12m 30s

Abstract:

This paper examines the ongoing cultural life of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon by applying Jan and Aleida Assmann’s concept of cultural memory alongside Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory. Through close readings of Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration' trilogy and selected poems by Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay, it explores how canonical First World War texts are reactivated in twenty‑first‑century literature to negotiate inherited trauma and ethical witnessing. The study shows that intertextual strategies—direct quotation, thematic allusion, and narrative fragmentation—function as both acts of remembrance and creative reinterpretation, expanding the original poets’ “lieux de mémoire.” It argues that this dialogic process enables contemporary writers to bear witness to historical suffering while critiquing and enriching collective narratives of war. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that rewriting trauma through memory frameworks not only preserves Owen and Sassoon’s anti‑war legacy but also fosters inclusive, evolving literary testimonies that resonate with new audiences.

Keywords:

Cultural Memory, Postmemory, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, War Poetry, Intertextuality, Trauma, Contemporary Rewritings.

Research Question:

How do cultural memory and postmemory inform and transform contemporary poetic and narrative engagements with the works of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon?

Hypothesis:

Contemporary rewritings of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, mediated through cultural memory and postmemory frameworks, both preserve the poets’ original anti‑war ethos and generate new, multi‑generational understandings of war trauma.

1. Introduction

Sassoon photographed in 1915 by George Charles Beresford
Image Source: Siegfried Sassoon/Wikimedia Commons

Wilfred Owen in uniform
Image Source: Wilfred Owen/Wikimedia Commons

The enduring legacy of World War I poetry, particularly the works of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, lies not only in their visceral depictions of trench warfare but also in the ways subsequent generations have reframed these texts to negotiate collective and personal trauma. This assignment examines how contemporary poets and writers engage with Owen and Sassoon through the twin lenses of cultural memory—Jan and Aleida Assmann’s paradigm of socially mediated remembrance—and Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, which describes the inherited, vicarious experience of traumatic pasts. By tracing intertextual dialogues in Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration' trilogy and in the anthologies edited by Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay, we explore how rewriting trauma functions as both an act of therapeutic confrontation and an ethical invocation to “bear witness” for new audiences.

2. Theoretical Frameworks: Cultural Memory and Postmemory

2.1. Cultural Memory

Cultural memory refers to the processes by which communities construct, transmit, and renew their relationship to the past through rituals, texts, and institutions. Pierre Nora’s notion of "lieux de mémoire" (sites of memory) highlights how poetry, monuments, and archives serve as focal points for communal remembrance (Pividori). In the context of Great War poetry, Owen and Sassoon themselves became "lieux de mémoire," their verses continually reactivated in classrooms, centenary commemorations, and literary anthologies.

2.2. Postmemory

Hirsch defines postmemory as the relationship of the second generation to the traumatic experiences of the first, marked by images and narratives so powerful they seem to constitute “memories” of events never directly experienced (Hirsch). She observes,

“at stake is precisely the ‘guardianship’ of a traumatic personal and generational past with which some of us have a ‘living connection.’”

(Hirsch)

Postmemory does not seek factual reconstruction but rather an imaginative engagement, a creative means to interrogate the present in relation to tragic generational legacies (Pividori and Owen).

3. Trauma and Memory in Owen and Sassoon

3.1. Owen’s Therapeutic Poetics

Daniel Hipp argues that war poetry was “Owen’s most effective therapy,” enabling him to articulate and thus master his shell shock (Hipp). Hipp contends,

“Although the war threatened to reduce Owen to psychological ruin…, it was the writing of poetry about the war which functioned as his most effective therapy.”

(Hipp)

In 'Dulce et Decorum Est,' the speaker re-enacts gas attacks so vividly that the poem becomes a means of “re-envision[ing] traumatizing experiences” to resolve personal failure (Hipp).

3.2. Sassoon’s Influence and Irony

Siegfried Sassoon’s mentorship at Craiglockhart taught Owen—

“the value of irony and the use of vernacular, rather than ornate, language in his poetry.”

(Hipp)

This shift from a “lush Keatsian” style to a more direct, sardonic tone reflects both poets’ “ironic consciousness,” a narrative strategy that undermines heroic war tropes (Norgate). As Norgate notes, Owen’s—

“narrative…is of people who suffer and die, not ‘the People’ who applaud and sanctify”

(Norgate)

—marking a departure from the romanticized war poetry of earlier contemporaries.

3.3. Collaborative Evolution

The friendship between Owen and Sassoon constituted a “central…relationship” in Owen’s poetic formation (Hipp). Brock observes that by deliberately invoking his nightmares—

“entirely by willingly considering war of an evening,”

(Hipp)

—Owen exercised conscious control over trauma to generate poetic material. Sassoon’s protective companionship enabled Owen’s return to service with a renewed confidence in his role as a communicator of grim realities.

4. Intertextuality in Contemporary War Narratives

4.1. Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration'

Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration' trilogy dramatizes the Owen‑Sassoon partnership, using intertextual references to underscore the process of cultural transmission. Joyes asserts,

“how Barker’s use of Wilfred Owen’s poetry simultaneously reinforces and challenges the authority of his combatant perspective.”

(Joyes)

Barker stages Owen and Sassoon revising—

“‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’…to clarify content, sharpen diction, and develop rhythm”

(Joyes)

—mirroring scholarly narratives about their real‑life collaboration.

4.2. Alternative Histories

By embedding Owen’s lines in fictional dialogue, Barker opens “the possibility of ‘alternative histories’” that challenge monolithic war narratives (Joyes). Anne Whitehead observes that Barker’s revisions honour and complicate Owen’s canonical status, using intertextuality to question the very authority granted to Great War poetry (Joyes). This metafictional strategy invites readers to consider how memory itself is always a form of rewriting.

5. Cultural Memory in Contemporary Poetry

5.1. Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay

In '1914: Poetry Remembers,' Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay curate canonical pieces by Owen and Sassoon alongside their own responses, creating a palimpsest of remembrance (Duffy). Duffy emphasizes the poet’s duty “to bear witness” to ongoing conflicts, suggesting that—

“the duty of today’s war poet is ‘to bear witness.’”

(Pividori)

5.2. Sites of Memory Renewed

Through Jan and Aleida Assmann’s lens, these anthologies function as new "lieux de mémoire," where cultural memory is continuously reaffirmed. Kay’s poem “Bantam” particularly explores the scars borne by thousands of ordinary soldiers who survived yet remained forever haunted (Pividori). By juxtaposing contemporary verses with Owen’s “The Send‑Off” and Sassoon’s “Survivors,” these collections demonstrate how cultural memory is both conserved and transformed by successive poetic voices.

6. Postmemory and Transgenerational Trauma

6.1. Belatedness and Proxy Witnessing

Hirsch highlights that in the “era of memory,” descendants of survivors grapple with “prosthetic memory,” a connection so deep that it feels like direct experience (Hirsch). This dynamic is evident in contemporary war poetry, where authors without firsthand combat experience undertake an ethical “guardianship” of trauma narratives (Hirsch).

6.2. Ethical Implications

Hirsch and colleagues debate—

“the ethics and the aesthetics of remembrance in the aftermath of catastrophe,” asking, “What do we owe the victims? How can we best carry their stories forward without appropriating them?”

(Hirsch)

Contemporary poets answer by privileging the act of bearing witness over factual recounting, thereby enacting a postmemorial solidarity with those who endured war.

7. Aesthetic Strategies of Rewriting Trauma

7.1. Fragmentation and Deferral

Inspired by Owen’s fragmentation of narrative time—shifting between past horrors and present reflection—contemporary poets employ non‑linear forms that mirror the discontinuity of traumatic memory. Duffy’s “An Unseen,” for instance, defers closure, much like Owen’s refusal to sanction “The old Lie” of patriotic slogans (Hipp).

7.2. Multivocality and Inclusion

By incorporating marginalized perspectives—soldiers, medics, civilians—modern poets expand Owen and Sassoon’s “community of the dead” into a “community of the living,” where multiple voices contest and complement dominant war myths (Pividori and Owen). This multivocal approach resonates with Norgate’s observation that Owen—

“incorporat[ed] dialogue with both Soldier Poetry and Sassoon,”

(Norgate)

—resisting closure in favor of ongoing conversation.

8. Case Studies of Contemporary Engagement

8.1. Carol Ann Duffy’s “An Unseen”

Carol Ann Duffy’s “An Unseen” refracts the experience of wartime absence through the language of love and loss. The poem’s speaker—half soldier, half mourner—traces love’s departure along a “quiet road,” evoking both a march and a funeral procession:

“Down the quiet road, away, away, towards
the dying time,
love went, brave soldier, the song dwindling;
walked to the edge of absence; all moments going,
gone; bells through rain
to fall on the carved names of the lost.”

Here, Duffy collapses the personal and the collective: “love” becomes emblematic of the young lives memorialized under those “carved names.” The repeated adverb “away, away” mirrors the insistence of military commands and the persistence of grief.

8.1.1. Temporal Disjunction

Non‑linear progression: The poem cycles between past (“I watched love leave…depart, return”) and an eternal present (“then and now, all future past, an unseen”), resisting a straightforward chronology.
Fractured syntax: Enjambment and semicolons—“late spring, a warm slow blue of air, old‑new.”—invite readers to dwell in overlapping moments, much like traumatic memory loops.
Semantic layering: Phrases such as “dying time” and “all future past” blend temporal registers, so that the dead soldier’s story bleeds into the speaker’s present, exemplifying Hirsch’s “screen memories” in which past and present co‑exist.

8.1.2. Voice and Agency

Shifts in address: The poem opens in first person—“I watched love leave”—then moves to second‑person heroic address—“love went, brave soldier”—before closing with a universal, questioning stance—“Has forever been then? Yes, forever has been.” This progression implicates reader as witness.
Metonymic use of “love”: By substituting “love” for soldier or life itself, Duffy grants agency to absence: love both “went” of its own volition and remains “here; not; missing, love was there.” The tension of presence/absence echoes Owen’s insistence on confronting the “harrowing…realistic experience” of war.
Ceremonial diction: Words like “bells through rain” and “carved names” invoke memorial rituals, positioning the poem itself as an active participant in communal remembrance (a modern "lieu de mémoire").

Together, these features show how Duffy re‑imagines Great War poetics: she retains the original poets’ focus on sensory detail and ethical bearing (to “bear witness”), yet reframes them through intimate, love‑laden language that underscores postmemorial continuity between past trauma and present grief.

8.2. Jackie Kay’s “Bantam”

Jackie Kay’s “Bantam” focuses on the forgotten survivors of the bantam battalions—undersized volunteers initially deemed unfit for combat yet who served nonetheless. Kay writes:

“It wisnae men they sent tae war,
It wis boys like the Bantams
wee men named efter
sma chickens,
or later a jeep, a bike, a camera
That needy, fir soldiers, they drapped height
Restriction, so small men came to war.
As a prisoner, my faither's weight dropped
And years later, the shrapnel frae the Somme
Shot oot, a wee jewel hidden in his right airm.”

This line foregrounds the interplay between physical burden and psychological stigma. By spotlighting these marginalized figures, Kay performs an act of prosthetic memory, ensuring their experiences occupy space in collective remembrance (Hirsch).

8.2.1. Intertextual Allusions

Kay subtly alludes to Owen’s “Spring Offensive,” in which Owen achieves—

“his ultimate vision of the moral purpose of war poetry…by allowing his processes of imagination to elevate the subject of war to the heroic.”

(Hipp)

In contrast, Kay’s poem intentionally refuses heroics, preferring a raw portrayal of survivors whose heroism is unacknowledged.

8.2.2. Critique of Commemoration

The recurring motif of “shame” interrogates mainstream commemorative practices that valorize certain narratives while silencing others. This aligns with Barker’s critique in 'Regeneration,' where the adaptation of Owen’s poems highlights “alternative histories” that resist singular war myths (Joyes).

8.3. Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration' Trilogy

Pat Barker’s 'Regeneration' (1991), 'The Eye in the Door' (1993), and 'The Ghost Road' (1995) reenvision Owen and Sassoon’s experiences at Craiglockhart War Hospital. Barker integrates direct quotations from Owen’s letters—e.g., the declaration that he would—

“bring on what few war dreams I now have…by willingly considering war of an evening”

(Hipp)

—into fictionalized dialogue, thereby collapsing the boundaries between archival text and imaginative narrative.

8.3.1. Metafictional Revision

Barker’s inclusion of Owen’s composition process (Owen dictating drafts of “Disabled”) foregrounds meta‑literary commentary on poetic creation as a form of therapy:

“the writing of poetry…enabled Owen to reconstruct a coherent voice.”

(Hipp)

The novel thus becomes a postmemorial site where the “traumatic personal and generational past” is both preserved and reimagined (Hirsch).

8.3.2. Collective Testimony

Through multiple viewpoints—including Dr. Rivers, Sassoon, and fictional minor characters—Barker amplifies the dialogic nature of cultural memory. The effect is an expanded “community of the dead,” in which trauma circulates among protagonists, echoing Pividori’s assertion that Owen and Sassoon—

“bear ‘the subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,’ forming a ‘community of the dead.’”

(Pividori)

9. Narrative Ethics and Aesthetic Rewritings

9.1. Guardianship and Appropriation

Marianne Hirsch poses urgent ethical questions:

“What do we owe the victims? How can we best carry their stories forward without appropriating them?”

(Hirsch)

Contemporary rewritings must negotiate this ethical terrain. Barker’s restrained insertion of historical texts into fiction exemplifies a mode of “guardianship” that respects source materials while acknowledging the creative license necessary for narrative vitality.

9.2. Authenticity vs. Imagination

Pividori and Owen argues that war poetry poses an—

“ethical responsibility…to accurately represent historical events”

(Pividori and Owen)

—while retaining imaginative power.

Contemporary poets often embrace formal fragmentation—ellipses, enjambment, sudden shifts—to mirror trauma’s shattering of coherent narrative. These aesthetic strategies resist the “closure” typical of early twentieth‑century Soldier Poetry, as Owen himself did (Norgate).

9.3. Trauma and Testimony

Norman N. Holland’s theory of “narrative as lived experience” suggests that readers become vicarious witnesses through textual immersion. In this light, the contemporary poet’s task aligns with Susan Suleiman’s “late” or “belated” witnessing, in which distance from events allows for creative yet respectful engagement (Hirsch). By staging the “second war” of memory, poets like Duffy and Kay enact a testimonial function akin to Owen’s own therapeutic self‑analysis:

“to place the offending images within the poems was a means to conquer the fears.”

(Hipp)

10. Implications for Cultural Memory Studies

10.1. Expanding "Lieux de Mémoire"

The continual revival of Owen and Sassoon in twenty‑first‑century texts underscores the dynamic nature of "lieux de mémoire." Cultural memory is not static; it evolves through retellings that reflect contemporary values—anti‑war sentiment, inclusivity, trauma awareness. As Pividori and Owen contends,

“the focus has shifted from present futures to present pasts,”

(Pividori and Owen)

—a paradigm that foregrounds the value of reflective historical engagement.

10.2. Postmemory as Creative Catalyst

Hirsch’s notion of postmemory invites scholars to see inherited trauma not merely as burden but as a wellspring of creative energy. Contemporary rewritings harness postmemory’s affective potency to craft texts that are both homage and critique. In doing so, they “reshape, reinterpret, and perpetuate” the memory of World War I for new generations (Pividori).

10.3. Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries

The interdisciplinary nature of cultural memory studies—encompassing literature, history, psychology, and visual culture—finds rich expression in contemporary war poetry. Practitioners draw on trauma theory (Cathy Caruth), memory studies (Halbwachs, Assmanns), and narrative ethics (Holland) to ground their work. This cross‑pollination underscores the necessity of collaborative scholarship in grappling with generational trauma.

11. Conclusion

Rewriting trauma through cultural memory and postmemory frameworks has revitalized Owen and Sassoon’s war poetry, ensuring their voices remain both foundational and contested. Contemporary poets and novelists—Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Pat Barker—engage in a dialogic process that simultaneously honors and interrogates canonical texts. By situating their works as modern "lieux de mémoire," these writers underscore that remembrance is an active, creative practice:

It bears witness to suffering, fulfilling the ethical imperative articulated by Duffy that “the duty of today’s war poet is ‘to bear witness’” (Pividori).
It reanimates traumatic pasts through postmemorial strategies, allowing second‑ and third‑generation authors to own a “living connection” to events they never experienced directly (Hirsch).
It reconfigures collective narratives, opening space for alternative and marginalized voices—from Kay’s bantam soldiers to Barker’s hospital patients—to claim recognition in the larger war story.

In sum, contemporary engagement with Owen and Sassoon exemplifies the potency of literary memory work. By interweaving direct quotations, archival fragments, and imaginative extension, modern poets and authors reaffirm poetry’s unique capacity to evoke the pain of others and to transform it into a shared ethical and aesthetic space. As we look toward further research, questions remain: How will future generations continue to reinterpret these foundational texts? What new formal innovations will emerge to capture evolving understandings of trauma? These inquiries underscore the ongoing significance of cultural memory and postmemory as both analytic frameworks and creative provocation for twenty‑first‑century war literature.

References:

Assmann, Jan, and John Czaplicka. “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity.” New German Critique, no. 65, 1995, pp. 125–33. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/488538.

Barker, Pat. Regeneration. Penguin Publishing Group, 1993.

---. The Eye in the Door. Penguin Books Limited, 2008.

---. The Ghost Road: Booker Prize Winner (A Novel). Penguin Publishing Group, 2013.

Duffy, Carol Ann. 1914: Poetry Remembers. Faber and Faber Poetry, 2014.

Hipp, Daniel. “‘By Degrees Regain[Ing] Cool Peaceful Air in Wonder’: Wilfred Owen’s War Poetry as Psychological Therapy.” The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 35, no. 1, 2002, pp. 25–49. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/1315317.

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HIRSCH, MARIANNE. The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust. Columbia UP, 2012. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/hirs15652.

JOYES, KALEY. “Regenerating Wilfred Owen: Pat Barker’s Revisions.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 42, no. 3, 2009, pp. 169–83. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44030674.

Kay, Jackie. Bantam. Pan Macmillan, 2017.

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Norgate, Paul. “Wilfred Owen and the Soldier Poets.” The Review of English Studies, vol. 40, no. 160, 1989, pp. 516–30. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/517098.

Owen, W. “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Poetry Foundation, 1920, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est.

Pividori, Cristina. “Owen and Sassoon Reconsidered.” Tiempo Devorado, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2025, pp. 41–77. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/tdevorado.246.

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Reporter, Guardian Staff. “Poems on War: Carol Ann Duffy Is Inspired by Wilfred Owen.” The Guardian, 26 Oct. 2013, www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/26/carol-ann-duffy-wilfred-owen-war-poem. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.