LANG & LIT PART 2: PROPAGANDA


Lesson 1: Advertising in general
What do you think is a good advert like?

Lessson 2:
PROPAGANDA: WORLD WAR 1 POSTERS:
Learning outcomes:
1.Show an awareness of the potential for educational, political or ideological influence of the media.
2.Show the way mass media use language and image to inform and persuade.

British propaganda during the war was not just about finding recruits: it was designed to make people believe in certain ideas and viewpoints and to think in certain ways. The poster shown below are examples of propaganda used by the government to encourage men to join the army.

Purpose: recruitment
When war broke out in August 1914, Britain relied only on a small professional force. Millions of volunteers were therefore required. Young men were subjected to relentless social pressures, both official and unofficial, to join the Army, until conscription was introduced, in 1916.

Propaganda Posters
Each of the nations which participated in World War One from 1914-18 used propaganda posters not only as a means of justifying involvement to their own populace, but also as a means of procuring men, money and resources to sustain the military campaign.
In countries such as Britain the use of propaganda posters was readily understandable: in 1914 she only possessed a professional army and did not have in place a policy of national service, as was standard in other major nations such as France and Germany.
Yet while the use of posters proved initially successful in Britain the numbers required for active service at the Front were such as to ultimately require the introduction of conscription. Nevertheless recruitment posters remained in use for the duration of the war - as was indeed the case in most other countries including France, Germany and Italy.
However wartime posters were not solely used to recruit men to the military cause. Posters commonly urged wartime thrift, and were vocal in seeking funds from the general public via subscription to various war bond schemes (usually with great success).
Interestingly, for all that the U.S.A. joined the war relatively late - April 1917 - she produced many more propaganda posters than any other single nation.

British Recruiting Posters
Source: http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/index.htm

Look at the posters of WW1 and compare them to US army recruitment posters and films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXPaoAh_JNY&feature=related

Guiding questions:
1.What strikes you if you compare the WW1 pictures to the army recruitment slides of the present US Army?
2.Who are these posters designed for?
3.What is their purpose?
4.What kind of language is used?
5.What can you tell about layout and use of images
6.In what ways is the audience manipulated?


The Sunday Times
January 7, 2008
They don’t mention the warfare - Army adverts come under attack
Michael Evans, Defence Editor
The Army is enticing young people to enlist with the aid of advertisements and leaflets that glamorise warfare and underplay the risks involved in a military career, it is claimed today.
The language in the recruiting literature and promotional DVD is so sanitised, a report says, that one brochure, Infantry Soldier, does not even mention the words “kill” or “risk”.
Killing is obscured, using euphemisms such as “decisive strikes”, and “surprise hits on enemy weak spots”.
Another brochure, called One Army, which promises to “tell it like it is”, and asks a soldier: “What’s the toughest test you’ve faced?” The answer is: “Being taught to ride a horse.”
Related Links
· Reservists hard hit by public antipathy to war
· We’re still a warrior nation
The study of the Army’s sales pitch, by an independent researcher funded by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, found that potential recruits get a misleading picture. David Gee, who wrote the report, said: “The Armed Forces have a poor retention record, partly because they promise recruits more than they can deliver, so thousands end up wanting to leave as soon as possible.”
According to official figures, for every two 16 to 22-year-olds joining the Army, one is leaving.
While glossing over the gruesome aspects of conflict is not new to war recruitment – as satirised by the musical Oh! What a Lovely War –it is now far subtler, and targeted at a younger audience, the report finds.
“As the pool of potential recruits shrinks, outreach to children is expanding, including to those as young as 7,” it says. “Key messages are tailored to children’s interests and values: military roles are promoted as glamorous and exciting, warfare is portrayed as game-like and enjoyable.” A common tactic, is to “emphasise the game-playing character of battle to attract children by blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality”.
Patrick Mercer, a Conservative MP and former commanding officer, told The Times that he agreed with the findings. “Joining an infantry regiment is not about paragliding and learning to be a bricklayer. You have to be honest with young people and tell them that the job can be brutal,” he said. “It’s totally shortsighted to claim that joining the Army is like becoming a social worker.”
The report, Informed Choice? Armed Forces recruitment practice in the UK, says: “The literature rarely refers to the dangers of combat and never mentions the risk of being killed, seriously injured or chronically traumatised. The absence of the word ‘kill’ suggests a policy decision to avoid it.”
Potential recruits can also be confused or misled in other ways, it says: “A soldier is obliged to serve for at least four years and three months (or up to six years in the case of under18s) with no right to leave once three months have passed. [But] this is omitted from the brochure and video.”
The differences between civilian and military life are not made clear, it adds. “Readers are told that there is ample free time and personal freedom.” In reality, the training programme involves “a tough regime of discipline. Trainees face relative isolation from family and friends for several months and can be posted to active service overseas immediately after training.”
Former Private Jamie Hicks, of the 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, who joined the Army in 2004 aged 17, said: “They certainly glamorised the pay. I was told I would be paid £1,100 a month but when I joined all I got was £600 a month.”
Mr Hicks, from East London, who left the Army a year ago, said that he was “pushed around a lot” and could not cope with the life. “I asked to move to another regiment or to leave the Army but I was told I had to serve for four years,” he said. He was finally administratively discharged.
The Ministry of Defence said: “Our recruitment practices avoid glamorising war and we refute any allegation that they depict warfare as ‘game-like’. Anyone considering a career in the Armed Forces is presented with clear information and all aspects of service life are discussed in detail. Joining the Services is a life-changing decision and is not taken lightly.” Deepcut Barracks in Surrey, where four young soldiers were found shot dead, will be demolished as part of government plans to improve army training, sources confirmed. It is likely that the base, which is the main training centre for the Royal Logistics Corps, will be replaced with a housing estate.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3142491.ece

7. In what ways are the newspaper article and the advertisements the same?

8. Find an advertisement yourself and answer questions 2-6 of the guiding questions once again but now apply them to your advertisement.

Lesson 3 and 4 Propaganda and poetry

Jessie Pope (died 1941)
Writer of Light Verse and Fiction and of many books for children. Born in Leicester, educated there and at North London School. Wrote three volumes of War poetry. Jessie Pope composed crude war verses for newspapers. She was particularly detested by the soldier poet Wilfred Owen, who saw her as typical of the unfeeling civilian who supported the War from the relative safety of home.

1. Who’s for the Game?

Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played,
The red crashing game of a fight?
Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?
And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?

Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’?
Who’ll give his country a hand?
Who wants a turn to himself in the show?
And who wants a seat in the stand

Who knows it won’t be a picnic — not much—
Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?
Who would much rather come back with a crutch
Than lie low and be out of the fun?

Come along, lads — but you’ll come on all right—
For there’s only one course to pursue,
Your country is up to her neck in a fight,
And she’s looking and calling for you.

JESSIE POPE

1. Why does Jessie Pope use this slang style (‘sit tight’, ‘up to her neck’, etc.)?
2. The poet uses a comparison throughout this poem. What is it? What is your opinion of it?
3. What do you think of the poet’s phrases: ‘ rather come back with a crutch…’ ‘out of the fun?’?

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est” of which the drafts are headed either “to Jessie Pope etc.” or “to a certain poetess” includes the lines:- ‘My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory the old lie dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.’ The Latin tag from Horace’s odes means “it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country” an attitude which Jessie Pope had promoted in her verse.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST
by Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick boys!- An ecstacy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. October 1917 – March 1918.

Who is this poem addressed to?
What is the purpose of each of the poems?
In what ways do they differ?

Lesson 5 & 6
Compare and contrast the two poems (BIG FIVE approach)

Comparative analysis:
Before writing a written task an important skill must be acquired: the ability to analyze texts. Once one can analyze the characteristics of a text, one can proceed to imitate and create something similar.
The process of analyzing texts can be broken into the five literary aspects presented here: the big 5.
Although these five literary aspects may not provide all the right questions in order to comment on every single text, these five categories offer a kind of sure fire-way of covering the main points when approaching a text.

THE BIG 5

1. AUDIENCE/PURPOSE
Who is the target audience, and how is this indicated in the register? Are there elements of exposition, persuasion, instruction, narration, description, explanation, argumentation, summation, definition, interpretation, evaluation, expression, or entertainment? What evidence is there for a specific text type e.g. magazine, article, diary, poem? In what kind of context was the author writing? What are the texts intended to achieve? Why were they written?

2. THEME/CONTENT
What is actually stated on the page (content) in comparison to what the reader can read between the lines (theme)? What kind of message is the author trying to convey? If there are sides to issues, how do we know where the author stands? Is he optimistic or pessimistic, objective or subjective?

3. TONE/MOOD
How do the texts feel? What kinds of sensations are implied by the words on the page?
Is the author being: sarcastic, melancholic, ecstatic, clinical jubilant, exuberant, dark, sombre, light, flippant, whimsical, satirical, ironic, angry, bitter, assertive, dogmatic, impersonal, detached, clinical, personal intimate, emotional, poignant, sentimental, philosophical, reflective, conversational, formal, stately, etc.

4. STYLISTIC DEVICES
What specific techniques do the authors employ? To what degree do they abide by the conventions of the text? What’s in his big bag of tricks: imagery, symbolism, analogy, allegory, simile, metaphor or onomatopoeia? What kind of point-of-view is employed: first person, third person, omniscient, biased, or panoramic? Or as far as non-fiction is concerned, to what degree are these used: a variety of sentence length, parallelisms, economical vocabulary, repetition, consistency, active and passive verbs, subordination and coordination?

5. STRUCTURE
How are the texts structured? What kinds of conventions are there? How are the texts organized: logically, coherently, as an argument, counter-argument and resolution, from general to particular, from question to answer, chronologically, etc?