Description
The ability to kill in war has often been attributed to propaganda that has made the enemy subhuman, or to technology which has placed the enemy at a more comfortable distance. This paper, however, traces an alternative trajectory of feeling for the enemy as a ‘strange friend’ as Wilfred Owen famously put it, in which enmity is swiftly transformed into forms of fellow feeling. As Owen’s work suggests, and a wealth of other soldier writings confirm, intimacy with the enemy is not necessarily a barrier to killing him. Taking Owen and his influences as a focal point, this paper considers encounters with the enemy in literature, philosophy, and soldiers’ life writings. I seek to explore the range of work done by announcements of feeling for the enemy both to challenge and enable militarism.
