American Women Writers and the First World War

Traditionally, the literary representation of the First World War has been the preserve of the male author. In particular, it is the account of the combat experienced soldier, most often the English soldier poets, which has been privileged. For more than two decades, however, critics have been actively engaged in establishing a more inclusive canon of war literature along gendered and national lines. Feminist scholars, in particular, have vigorously explored the complex intersection between war, writing and gender, recovering and re‐evaluating women's narratives of war, recognising them as important literary, social and historical documents. This article will address both gendered and national concerns, offering an overview of important developments in the study of American women's writings from the First World War. It will also engage with current critical debates which address issues such as the development of distinctly female modernisms and the presentation of war through the female gaze.