Sassoon’s Wartime Ethics: Satire, Sarcasm, and the Rhetoric of Poetic Protest

Abstract

The archetypal English trench poet, Siegfried Sassoon, employed the ironic techniques of satire and sarcasm to address the First World War’s absurdities. Yet, though his intentions are laudable, Sassoon’s methodologies are not ethical. Habermas’s conception of discourse ethics demands that readers be included in the construction of literary meaning; when ironies divide readers and writers, they miss their target. Despite readers’ sympathy for the war poet’s tragic position, poems such as “They,” “The Hero,” and “Blighters” present coercive rather than progressive rhetoric—negating the social good Sassoon intends by mimicking the unilateral bombasts of war.

Notes

1. ¹Grateful acknowledgement is made to Theresa Enos for editorial assistance and expertise and to RR reviewers Mark Braley and James J. Kimble for extensive and encouraging feedback on this essay. Paul Peppis, Mark Johnson, John T. Gage, and Mark Whalan were all crucial to the conception, labor, and delivery of this argument.

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Notes on contributors

Stephen J. Summers

Stephen Summers teaches and advises students on improving reading, writing, and memory in the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Oregon. He enjoys writing when not reading poetry with his philosopher wife or fairy tales with his young son. He can be reached with questions or comments at [email protected].