Surviving The Wars Binary Disintegrations Of...

Maciej Piorkowski 250651104 ENG 4740F Alicia Robinet December 4, 2014 Surviving The Wars: Binary Disintegrations of Homosociality and Homosexuality An overarching social paradox is inherent in the way Canadian citizens internalize the notion of civic duty; while violent participation in the Great War is lauded as personal and national achievement, post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from significant trauma, physical or social, is also recognized as an integral part of the military consciousness. Veterans experience grief as a result of the expected ownership of this psychological binary, and the ability to communicate grief among groups of veterans becomes problematic due to other binaries existing as part of the Great War experience, namely notions of male camaraderie. Groups of males, particularly soldiers, are forged and cultivated based on pre-existing masculine values, and the analysis of the ramifications of imposed masculinity in relation to group dynamics and individualism is as significant as the depictions of violence in the narrative of war. If the Great War alters conceptions of pre-war and post-war male groups due to trauma, then the war period offers an effective analysis for the deconstruction of pastoral male camaraderie prevalent before the devastating physical and social violence that ensues. Eve Sedgwick’s text, â€Å"Between Men† (1985), defines homosociality as the â€Å"social bonds between persons of the same sex †¦ it is applied to such activities as ‘male