War, Propaganda and the Intellectual: A Gramscian Approach to Bernard Shaw’s “Common Sense About the War” (1914)

19767

This essay aims to read Shaw’s “Common Sense About the War” (1914) within the context of the British and German intellectual’s public declarations on the war. Both British and German governments demanded their intellectuals to defend their war to the public and to the world. Declarations made by significant figures of both nations affirm the narrative told by the political body. This is a Gramscian reading which takes Gramsci’s observation on the role of intellectuals: “intellectuals play a major role in the struggle for hegemony”. Shaw’s “Common Sense About the War” was just that act “in the struggle for hegemony.” Challenging the “common sense” views of his times, Shaw attempted to urge the public to be more critical and questioning about their patriotic and ethnocentric positions on most vital issues such as war. In Gramscian terms, he invites the public to use “good sense” rather than the taken for granted “common sense”. Shaw uses the phrase “common sense” in his title to invite the public to “common sense” leaving aside their romantic, idealised views on the war and its causes. Despite their ideological differences, British public figures such as Kipling, Bennett, Wells, Christabel Pankhurst and Doyle among others seemed all to be united at that time of war under the banner of patriotism. Shaw’s text inthis sense contests the hegemonic discourse of the time.

438

“Common Sense About the War” , Bernard Shaw , First World War , Propaganda , Gramsci

Gaziantep University Journal Of Social Sciences

451

Gaziantep University Journal Of Social Sciences