Figures of Transgression in Representations of the First World War on British Television

This chapter will explore British televisual representations of transgression in the First World War. It will focus on the ways in which mutiny,

desertion and conscientious objection have been used to subvert normative narratives of the Great War and the notions of identity linked to them. It will

also consider how the deployment of historical transgression has enabled critical reflections of contemporary political and social discourses. It will

demonstrate how and why the intersection of the commemorative impulse in televisual representations of war encourages reflection on and negotiation of positions within and outside of the more reassuring cultural narratives about the conflict, within institutional and governmental contexts for production and reception. It will focus on texts that return to the figures of the mutineer, conscientious objector and deserter to show how these figures function in representations of the Great War, conflict, politics and nationhood, and how they have shifted over time. These examples indicate that such figures provide uncomfortable counter-narratives but that these are ultimately deployed to reinforce dominant ideas about the war. This chapter will therefore examine the ways in which the television medium has mediated public discourse about the historical and historiographical meanings of

war and identity during and after the conflict of 1914–18.