Exercise 1: Please create parenthetical citations for the following
References
Campbell, J. (1999). Combat Gnosticism: The ideology of First World War poetry criticism. New Literary History 30(1), 203-215. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org
1. Please write a parenthetical citation for a quote from Campbell’s article on page 211
Owen, W. (1917, August 2). [Letter to Susan Owen]. Retrieved from http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/document/5230/4706
Campbell, J. (1999). Combat Gnosticism: The ideology of First World War poetry criticism. New Literary History 30(1), 203-215. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org
“As a result what it legitimates as war literature is produced exclusively by combat experience; the knowledge of combat is a prerequisite for the production of a literary text that adequately deals with war. This is what I mean by combat gnosticism: a construction that gives us war experience as a kind of gnosis, a secret knowledge which only an initiated elite knows. Only men [. . . ]who have actively engaged in combat have access to certain experiences that are productive of, perhaps even constitutive of, an arcane knowledge. Furthermore, mere military status does not signify initiation, but only status as a combatant”(p. 204).
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The Essay:
Traditional war poetry praised the glory of war and the heroism of soldiers, yet this traditions was broken with a group of WWI British soldiers, who sought to give a more realistic vision of war on the Western Front. These soldiers participated in combat gnosticism: a construction that gives us war experience as a kind of gnosis, a secret knowledge which only an initiated elite knows. Each of these soldiers had served in the trenches and witnessed the nightmarish conditions under which the men lived and died. Thus, they were able to produce poetry that adequately deals with war, namely trench warfare. Further, these poems allowed those who were not privy to the conditions of war a sort of arcane knowledge that on a status as a combatant could yield.
Wilfred Owen was a British WWI poet, who reveals a first-hand account of a soldier dying of mustard gas in the trenches. Readers are asked to witness his death and determine if it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country (dulce et decorum est pro patria mori).
The poem opens with an image of soldiers that seems to contradict tradition: instead of being portrayed as heroes willing to die for God and country, the soldiers are portrayed as weakened and delirious with fatigue. This portrait of soldiers participates in combat gnosticism in that only a combatant would have this gnosis, or secret knowledge, of the realities of war faced by soldiers. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, /Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge [ . . .] Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,/ But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;” (Owen, 1921, Lines 1-2, 5-6). The weight of the war seems to be unbearable, physically reducing the men to beggars who are bent double under its burden. Further, the men are arguably emasculated when being described as hags. The physical endurance is precarious: surrounded by the sludge, they have lost their foundation–their boots. Without boots, a soldier is left vulnerable, not having the protection of boots, they left to limp on with bleeding feet. Thus, the opening image of a soldier is one in a weakened state: cursing at the hardships of war; an image that contradicts traditional poetry that worships soldiers as heroes welcoming war. This portrait can only be given by a soldier stationed on the Western Front who witnessed these daily hardships that ultimately resulted in life or death.
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What am I looking for?
Exercise 1
1. (parenthetical citation)
2. (parenthetical citation)
3. (parenthetical citation)
4. (parenthetical citation)
Exercise 2
Copy and paste the paragraph. Review each sentence and add “quotation marks” when words or phrases from the research are copied and pasted and add a (parenthetical citation). One hint, the first paragraph is an introductory paragraph that defines the controlling idea. Defining a controlling idea requires college-level, peer-reviewed research. Therefore, the first paragraph contains research.
The second paragraph is a thesis statement that does not, and should not, contain research.
The third paragraph is the first supporting paragraph that builds from the definition of the controlling idea by discussing one of the themes used in the definition. The quotation in this paragraph comes from the poem so as to provide an example of this theme
