David Jones’ In Parenthesis as an Intercultural Space
Jean Ward (University of Gdańsk)
In the epic poetic work In Parenthesis, published just before the outbreak of World War II, the forgotten British modernist David Jones, better known as a visual artist, presented a semi-fi ctional account of his experiences as a rank-and-fi le soldier in the London- Welsh Battalion of the British army during World War I. The author, like one of the heroes of his work, was at the front from December 1915 to July 2016, when he was wounded on the fi rst day of the long offensive on the Somme. By origin Jones was half-Londoner and half-Welsh – and both of these „halves”, which were refl ected in the composition of his battalion, were important to him. He was also by upbringing an Anglican but by choice a Roman Catholic. The offi ces of the Catholic chaplain and the faith of the ordinary Catholics to which he was witness as a soldier played a considerable part in his conversion. He strove to embody in words the particular character of the speech and culture of all the members of the battalion, regardless of their origin or religious affi liation. He also showed respect and tenderness not only towards the culture of the country in which the battles were fought – France – but also even towards „the enemy front-fi ghters”, to whom, along with his friends from the British side, he dedicated In Parenthesis. Under his hand, the trenches of the First World War become a truly intercultural space.
The full version of this article is available in Polish in the printed version of Tekstualia and in the on-line subscription.
The sample of Polish version of this article is available here: http://tekstualia.pl/index.php/pl/nasze-numery/295-4-51-2017/artykuly/1472-in-parenthesis-davida-jonesa-jako-przestrzen-interkulturowa
