Pacifism and English Literature Minstrels of Peace [Hardcover]

This timely book traces ideas of pacifism in English literature, particularly poetry. Early chapters, drawing on religious and secular traditions, provide intellectual contexts. There follows a chronological analysis of literature which rejects war and celebrates peace, from the Middle Ages to the present day.Acknowledgements Literature and Peace Studies From Minstrels to Martyrs PART ONE: PACIFIST PERSPECTIVES Sacred Texts Secular Texts, Humanist Pacifism PART TWO: A BRIEF PACIFIST HISTORY OF ENGLISH POETRY Medieval Pacifism Renaissance Pacifism Shakespeare's Pacifist Voices Romantic Peace and War Pacifism in Prose and Films A Plague on both your Houses: Air Control, Civilian Casualties and Twentieth-century Poetry Conclusion: 'Songs of such Exquisite Sweetness' Bibliography Index

'R.S. White's thought-provoking book brings out literature's longstanding critique of armed combat as a way of resolving disputes...Written with conviction in the context of the West's shameful waste of life in Iraq...this reflective and wide-ranging book presents a timely reminder that war is always a choice. Literature tends to indicate that it is usually a poor one.' - Catherine Belsey, Times Higher Education (Book of the Week)

'A noteworthy book by a creative scholar.' - Choice

'A pioneering book and a conscientious work of conviction.' Australian Book Review

'The only areas where the study of peace does have an institutional base, in various academic departments of Peace Studies, tend to pay literature little attention. Here is the ground White aims to fill, in a wide-ranging book whose polemical energy aims at a wide audience but which has much to surprise specialists... a timely and thought-provoking book.' - David Norbrook, The Review of English Studies

'This is a timely and absorbing study. It will serve usefully as both a reference source for the history of pacifism in literary texts and an inspiringl£Ù