War Narrative and Mnemonic Modes in Goodbye to All That : A Perspective of Mnemohistory

Robert Graves’s autobiographical memoir, Goodbye to All That, stands as a significant representative of British World War I literature, propelling the transformation of the mnemohistory of WWI in Britain through a micro-perspective focused on individual trauma. From the perspective of mnemohistory, Graves reproduces extreme traumatic experiences through theatrical scenes and soundscape-oriented narrative strategies, revealing the absurd nature of modern warfare. His unique war narrative integrates two mnemonic modes, namely, the experiential mode and the reflexive mode. On the one hand, relying on the “experiential mode” of memory and the interweaving of fact and fiction, the work records and reconstructs the fragmented yet authentic war experiences of the combatants. On the other hand, through the critical lens of the “reflexive mode” of memory, it satirizes the British postwar mainstream memory culture that glorified heroism. The dialectical interaction between these two mnemonic modes not only highlights Graves’s ethical responsibility as a war witness, but also deconstructs the discursive logic of official grand narratives, thus establishing an individual dimension for the reshaping of WWI cultural memory.