Her topic is a very interesting rethink of the Great War and National Identity. Breakout Title: Bill Massey’s Tourists in the Big Smoke: Rethinking the Great War and National Identity[Monday, Session 2] New Zealand’s experiences in World War One have become almost inextricably intertwined with narratives of national identity. In numerous histories, the deadly shores of Gallipoli and the mud of the Western Front are not only scenes of staggering mortality but also of a kind of redemptive rebirth. Away from home, and amongst the British, it is claimed, soldiers found themselves to be something distinct: they had become New Zealanders. In these histories, nascent New Zealandness is formed in opposition to Britishness. But war could forge bonds as well as break them. This paper will re-evaluate our conventional assumptions by examining another important, yet overlooked war time site: London. From 1916, London was the centre for New Zealand’s military command, but for the soldiers themselves, it had a much more important function. It was the main site of leave for soldiers escaping the routine of the main camp in nearby Sling, the boredom of a convalescent hospital or the carnage of the Western Front. As thousands of ‘Bill Massey’s tourists’ hit the streets of London, volunteer organisations like the YMCA and the New Zealand War Contingent Association sprang into action, ready to convert the ‘big smoke’ into a familiar ‘Home away from home’. Drawing on the diaries and letters of soldiers, this paper will examine the effects of this experience on issues of identity, arguing that the old nationalist model of alterity – New Zealand versus British – and even newer interpretations that allow for a continuing sense of Britishness, obscure a much more subtle process of identity formation.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 21:54:36 +0000
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