Ford Madox Ford's War Writing

Excellent studies exist of Ford Madox Ford’s literary response to the First World War, especially the Parade’s End tetraology (1924-28); new scholarship discussing genres other than his novels addresses a comparative gap in the criticism. This Special Issue offers critical commentary on a broad range of Ford’s wartime writing, along with new approaches to his best-known work. Ford had close relationships with other writers and artists; the Special Issue celebrates this connectedness by also looking comparatively at his response to the war.

Ford used his writing to move mourning beyond the confines of personal and physical loss to encompass the loss of morals, virtues, and traditions, and to represent psychological breakdown. In addition to offering an opportunity to re-contextualise Ford’s work and support scholars interested in learning more about his output, this Special Issue reflects on Ford’s representations of nationalism and a climate of uncertainty, exploring the range of his related skills and innovations from imagery and linguistic experiment to his engagement with history.