The (M)Other Battle of World War One: The Maternal Politics of Pacifism in Rose Macaulay’s Non-Combatants and Others
Boxwell, D. A. 1993. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 12, no. 1: 85–101.
The text begins by relating the concept of motherhood to war, and, through references to the Iliad, establishes that there motherhood and militarism are inextricably linked with regards to questions of a mother’s willingness to sacrifice her sons. Then, by shifting focus to Rose Macaulay’s Non-Combatants and Others, the article examines the concept of pacifism through the lens of militarism and asserts that pacifism should not be read on stereotypical gender lines whereby femininity is equated to pacifism and weakness and masculinity to aggression and strength.