Paranoia, power and male identity in John Buchan's Literary War

This thesis explores some of the intersections between paranoia, power, and male identity in the first three Hannay novels – The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), Greenmantle (1916), and Mr. Standfast (1919) – of John Buchan (1875-1940), and the close links between these intersections and the rhetoric and discourses surrounding World War One. It opens by arguing that Buchan’s ‘Literary War’ can itself be thought of as a kind of ‘paranoid imaginary’ in which cultural fears (particularly fears relating to decadence and degeneration) are projected outwards to return in the romantic guise of hostile foreigners intent on destroying England, and in which the image of the ‘strong’ masculine self is promoted as a means of protecting the nation. Chapter One argues that The Thirty-Nine Steps functions as an extension of the invasion novel tradition in which a model of masculinity derived from the imperial pioneer is offered as such a gesture of self-defence. Chapter Two looks to Greenmantle’s problematization of the strong masculine self along two axes of interference: homosexuality and homoerotic desire, and empowered femininity. Chapter Three argues that Mr. Standfast brings the Literary War to a close with an image of male power underpinned by the imagery and colours of chivalry. The thesis concludes with a short discussion of some of the innate problems and nuances of Buchan’s recourse to the paranoid imaginary.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

m_ph

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

m_ph

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Birmingham

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Waddell, Nathan Joseph

• PR English literature

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/68/2/Decl_IS_Waddell07MPhil.gif

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etheses.bham.ac.uk:68