A diet of dead crow
aspects of French culture in the criterion (1923–39)
pp. 124-134
in: Ceri Crossley, Ian Small (eds), Studies in Anglo-French cultural relations, Berlin, Springer, 1988Abstract
The First World War altered much in intellectual and cultural relationships between England and France. Normal channels for the reception of French culture were disrupted. The effect of this on the English intellect was a grievous sense of loss: Paul Fussell describes it as "a loss of amplitude, a decay of imaginative and intellectual possibility corresponding to the literal loss of physical freedom'.1 In the aftermath of the war, many judged it imperative that cultural links with the Continent be restored. Something had to be done to counter the feeling that, in the words of E. M. Forster, England had become "tighter and tinier and shinier than ever — a very precious little party'.2 Dissatisfaction was such that many English intellectuals quite simply left for France, or for another country, becoming members of what Fussell has called the "British literary Diaspora'. For those obliged to remain, the literary review was a compensatory medium, an important instrument for the raising of cultural awareness.3
