The Form of Modernist Propaganda in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-12-2013

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Abstract

This article suggests that the formal elements of Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Heat of the Dayunderscore both the changing practice of propaganda and the extant tension about Irish neutrality during World War II. Bowen has often been cited as an author who embraces opacity in her fiction, and often this practice is connected in her work to political tensions that she first experienced in Ireland as a result of colonial conflict. The article suggests that a similar strategy, at use in this London-based World War II novel about espionage, highlights this history of tension. Bowen's own position as an intermediary between the Ministry of Information and Irish public opinion provided her a keen insight into British strategy towards Ireland's neutrality. Her Blitz novel, The Heat of the Day, mirrors much of Bowen's formal techniques in her letters to the Ministry of Information, and this article suggests that this reflects the impact of modern propaganda techniques on her war-time novel.

DOI

10.1080/0950236X.2013.752218


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