5 - Behind the Lines
Encounters with Civilians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2021
Summary
Chapter Five, ‘Behind the Lines’, explores the men’s encounters with civilians. Focusing on spaces, like cafes, estaminets and domestic homes, in both Britain and France, the chapter begins with some of the youngest participants in colonial encounters - children. The chapter then explores how these more domestic contact zones were accessed, through entitlement or earning the right to connection with civilian women and the maternal, emotional, sexual and romantic support they might offer. In these spaces, we can see the beginnings of wartime encounter seeping beyond the boundaries of the conflict, especially through marriage. While camp and leave created memories of encounters that shaped veteran culture, civilian contact zones fostered in these liminal, overlapping spaces of living alongside the war had an impact on post-war life.
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- Contact Zones of the First World WarCultural Encounters across the British Empire, pp. 127 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021