Trauma, the Sublime and the Uncanny in Isaac Rosenberg’s War Poetry

Abstract

This thesis examines the poetry of Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) in relation to theories of trauma, the uncanny and the sublime. Rosenberg’s poetry is difficult to locate in the larger discourse of the twentieth century and this problem is complicated by his hybrid identity as an Anglo-Jewish poet and by the mixed traditions that inspire him from Hebrew, Hellenic and Greek sources. I discuss his early poetry and the sublime while investigating the poet’s literary taste and the influence of the Romantics, particularly William Blake (1857-1827) on his aesthetics. The imbalance between Rosenberg’s subject matter in these early experiments and the sublime is resolved in his war poetry because of the relevance of war to such a grandiose theme. I point out the importance of the uncanny and trauma in Rosenberg’s war poetry in revealing how repression and anxiety affect him and result in his unsettled diction and precarious style. I investigate the poet’s trauma through tracing its symptoms in his later works and some of his letters, revealing how he attempted to relieve his pains by composing poetry while being in the trenches of WWI. I aim to add to existing scholarship on Rosenberg and to contribute to a better understanding of his poetry by considering the connection between these three concepts and their importance to his poetry.