Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett

by Joy Porter

This book examines the extraordinary life of Frank “Toronto” Prewett and the history of trauma, literary expression, and the power of self-representation after WWI. Joy Porter sheds new light on how the First World War affected the Canadian poet, and how war-induced trauma or “shell-shock” caused him to pretend to be an indigenous North American. Porter investigates his influence of, and acceptance by, some of the most significant literary figures of the time, including Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves. In doing so, Porter skillfully connects a number of historiographies that usually exist in isolation from one another and rarely meet. By bringing together a history of the WWI era, early twentieth century history, Native American history, the history of literature, and the history of class Porter expertly crafts a valuable contribution to the field.

304 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2022

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed together with The Selected Poems of Frank Prewitt.

It was a fascinating process to approach this book about my great-grandfather. I did so with trepidation; Joy Porter's book is an academic text and not a biography (although her obvious deep interest in the subject compels her to tell the story of Prewitt's life). The book makes for heavy reading at times, retracing various threads of analysis throughout the book, but Porter writes very clearly and incorporates so many aspects of his life and poetry, as well as the various, famous characters that touched his life. Her arguments are woven into a detailed historical and social picture, the sum of which is a very genuine portrait of an age of flux. Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War looks at the personality and work of Frank Prewitt and his contemporaries to provide a fascinating insight into the period of time before and after the First World War. As such, the book moved beyond personal interest as I was pulled into this world of soldiers, artists and revolutionary thinkers in a time when everything, the very make-up and structure of our society, was redefining itself.

Prewitt, the poet and the soldier, was a man struggling with that change. Torn between war, nature and his creative ego, he and many of his acquaintances echo the lost Hardian hero, the Jude out of place in the time he is born in. Many of the war poets and other literary friends (Sassoon and Graves are the too most mentioned here but Porter brings in the stories of many others) act of the parts of tragic celebrities. When you read Prewitt's wonderful poems, you hear echoes of rock n' roll lyrics still fifty years in the future. I prefer his most direct, war-themed poems, when he tackles despair, mortality and existence straight on, with a melancholy brusqueness than can send a quiver down your spine - "The Void Between", "I Went Out Into the Fields", the terrifying "Card Game", "If Dead, Free", "Do Not Go Away So High." It's not hard to understand why high profile figures believed Porter to be such a talent. They have a dark romanticism, informed by the awful traumas that he underwent during service, a angsty, Gothic longing for rest, for answers, for posterity. Porter focuses more on his society than his poetry. The descriptions and the details of life at Garsington, hosted by the singular figure of Lady Ottoline Morrell, forms a story in itself. The subversive, changeable natures of these men and women who blurred the boundaries of gender, class and education, serve to symbolise the flux shaking Europe at the time.

Porter's main focus is the topic of Prewitt's assumed Iroquois identity, although she herself is cautious with her historical facts. She describes the fashion and trends of the time, the fascination with indigenous cultures and with dressing up. Together with a portrait of another vital figure, Dr Rivers, Porter outlines the shifts in racial and cultural identities at the time and tries to place Prewitt's choice to adopt a 'primitive', Native American identity into that context. This slots into the wider context of colonial history and the beginnings of the disintegration of the British Empire - all of which ties into the historical realities of the First World War, with perceptions of patriotism and with the position of colonies like Canada. Later in the book, she looks at Prewitt's return to Canada and his focus on agriculture, as well as his disillusionment with the American way of life. His longing and his love for English countryside can be seen in his collection "A Rural Scene". Although I don't think those poems match the power of his war poetry, they tie in well with the image of his persona, wrapped up as they are in ghosts and darkness. "The Kelso Road" is a good example of how Prewitt's preoccupations with love, nature and death combine to create beautiful, lyrical and haunting poetry.

It is far beyond my knowledge to question Porter's overall thesis and her discussion of primitivism in relation to Frank Prewitt. However, her conclusion alone is an excellent piece of writing, bringing the themes of her book together and knitting them into a picture of the age. She uses anecdotes of people and happenings well to further her analysis - one example is the aside in the conclusion to look at the impact of The Rite of Spring on the culture of the times. Very soon into Porter's book I was no longer reading it as a book about my great-grandfather but as a comprehensive, sensitive and thoughtful account of an explosive and important period in our history.