Cartography of Wounds
Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Wearn, James
Martin, Jenny
Date published
October 2019
Abstract
Following in the footsteps of two Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) servicemen in the Somme Department of northern France during 1916, the authors draw comparisons between the wounds inflicted on men and those sustained by the botanical landscape – tracing a parallel ‘cartography of wounds’. Although the events described may be from 1916, this is a conceptual map which spans space and time, body and mind, human and more–than–human assemblages. It challenges all those who visit the Western Front to consider the green ‘background to human activity’ as an essential component of that battlescape and the events which took place therein. A holistic approach to perceiving Great War landscapes permits an enhanced understanding of the intertwined character of interactions between us and our environment in the so–called Anthropocene age of human impact.
Journal title
Stand to! The Journal of the Western Front Association
Volume
116