thesis abstract

[John King <john.king@st-johns.oxford.ac.uk>]

> Congratulations in advance! I think all of us (well, may be not all of us,
> as far as I follow today's conversation ;-)) are keen on reading your final
> abstract - at least.

well, now you have the chance! These are drafts and potentially subject to
minor revision. Likewise, although the thesis is now completed, it is
subject to examination and approval by the examiners.

> And where and when does the party take place? And are we all invited?

Tomorrow, University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford. Photos to follow,
perhaps :-) Hey, if anyone's there, come along :-)) 

I also have a longer abstract of ca. 2,500 words if anyone is interested
in what I've done over the past four and a bit years :-)

Regards,

JK


Abstract
Writing and Rewriting the First World War: Ernst Jünger and the
Crisis of the conservative Imagination, 1914-25 

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

John King, St. John's College, Trinity Term 1999.

In this thesis I examine the complexities involved in Ernst Jünger's
various texts on the First World War using an interdisciplinary approach.
I postulate that 'classical modernity' - which privileged self,
rationality and totalising meta-narrative was a (logocentric) project that
deconstructed itself through its internal contradictions. These emerged
particularly starkly in the industrialised slaughter of the First World
War. I argue that the 'conservative imagination' - like Jünger's -
responded to this by attempting to reconstruct the assumptions of
'classical modernity' in texts that are often described as 'modernist'.
Jünger found himself in precisely this situation and I trace the resultant
contradictions in his War texts. Starting with his unpublished manuscript
war diary as a base, I show how it attempts to cling to the assumptions of
'classical modernity' but also exhibits considerable instability and a
sense of absurdity which persistently undermines his conservative attempts
to interpret the war on 'classical modern' lines. "In Stahlgewittern" was
intended to be a 'monumental history' with himself as heroic subject but
failed to contain the deconstructive energy of the war. His little-known
articles in the "Militärwochenblatt" testify to the crisis caused by the
conflict between Jünger's assumptions and the reality of his experience.
"Der Kampf als inneres Erlebnis" is a profoundly fissured to interpret the
War. "Sturm", however, escapes many of the problems of the other books by
turning to what I shall call a 'proto-post-modernism', but because Jünger
could not fully accept the implications of this attempt he turned to a
'conservative revolutionary' strategy which is, however, subverted from
within. Ultimately, I show that ambivalence and contradiction are at the
very heart of Jünger's fissured early work and argue that this has hardly
been noticed or accounted for by the majority of critics writing on this
far from monumental author.


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John King
St. John's College	
GB - Oxford OX1 3JP
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