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The visual culture of modern war: Photography, posters, and soldiers' art in World War I France

Mark Levitch-2008-01-01-Scholarly Commons (University of Pennsylvania)
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This dissertation analyzes the transformation of French visual culture during the First World War. The outbreak of conflict upended traditional artistic hierarchies and entrenched new, popular media as war, mass culture, and modern propaganda merged for the first time. This study investigates the complex, dynamic mechanisms through which French society constructed a system of “real” and mythical representations that addressed and compensated for the overwhelming absences—personal, informational, and aesthetic, among others—occasioned by this first mass, industrialized conflict. The dissertation focuses on three types of images or objects that were new, or played newly salient roles, during the war: official and unofficial photographs; war posters; and art made by soldiers. It traces the emergence of these media, seeking to explain their ubiquity and their specific characteristics; how they functioned for their makers; and how they resonated at the home front. I argue that different obj

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This dissertation analyzes the transformation of French visual culture during the First World War. The outbreak of conflict upended traditional artistic hierarchies and entrenched new, popular media as war, mass culture, and modern propaganda merged for the first time. This study investigates the complex, dynamic mechanisms through which French society constructed a system of “real” and mythical representations that addressed and compensated for the overwhelming absences—personal, informational, and aesthetic, among others—occasioned by this first mass, industrialized conflict. The dissertation focuses on three types of images or objects that were new, or played newly salient roles, during the war: official and unofficial photographs; war posters; and art made by soldiers. It traces the emergence of these media, seeking to explain their ubiquity and their specific characteristics; how they functioned for their makers; and how they resonated at the home front. I argue that different obj

Keywords

Visual culturePhotographyVisual artsWorld War IIFirst world warHistoryArtAncient history

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