Abstract

Through a close reading of Timothy Findley's 1977 novel The Wars this thesis explores the various ways in which modernity and the Great War (1914-1918) irrevocably altered the human condition. The seemingly instantaneous ubiquity of new technologies in the early twentieth-century (the mechanical, the electrical), mass production and the mass scaling of both industry and warfare changed life for everyone in the West. Commodification and mass consumption altered human relationships and behaviour, as did the arrival of the mechanical - especially in the form of the automobile - in the domestic sphere. The experience of time itself became corrupted, mutating the nature of sleep both at the front and at home while also accelerating personal relationships. Findley's novel also throws light upon the heightened fusion of sex and violence in the modem era. Most interesting, however, are the various human responses to modernity and the Great War which The Wars exhibits and the complex prognosis for humanity Findley delivers through a menagerie of fragile characters