Ministering angels, discursive representations of women in unofficial war propaganda, 1914-1918

Abstract

This study examines the war propaganda directed at women during the First World War in a weekly paper for women, The Family Journal, published by The Amalgamated Press. I begin with the premise, proposed by Jacques Ellul, that propaganda is not a single entity but is rather a multifaceted, "sociological phenomenon." Ellul distinguishes two basic types of propaganda, the propaganda of agitation and the propaganda of integration. Agitation propaganda functions as a call to action, while integration propaganda functions to acculturate individuals into their society. To understand the propaganda process, we need to examine its various facets, cultural, rhetorical, and linguistic. To do so I draw on the social theory Pierre Bourdieu, the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke, and the language theory of M.A.K. Halliday. Chapter One examines various theories of propaganda, particularly those of Ellul, and looks briefly at the history of the woman's magazine to se how war propaganda mobilized resources already in place in the woman's magazine. Epideictic is the structuring "meta-genre" for both integration propaganda and the woman's magazine; because of this generic link, war propaganda can move easily into that medium. Chapter Two provides an overview of the theoretical perspectives of Bourdieu, Burke, and Halliday, and indicates how their theories augment those of Ellul and provide contextual and textual frameworks for examining actual instances of propaganda. Chapter Three discusses the resources that create consensus. Mythologies of the war, the combatants, and the women they are fighting for, the authority of the columnists and the ethos they create, and the familiar "modes of address" adopted by the paper, all serve to naturalize, and are naturalized by, the language of the magazines. Chapter Four discusses the ways in which hierarchies, created by the discriminations we make through language, create enough tension and anxiety to move people to act, and, simultaneously, offer ways of mitigating that anxiety. The Conclusion points to ways in which this integration of theoretical perspectives can be applied to a contemporary instance of propaganda.