ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the anxiety associated with the tension as it appears in some of Macaulay's wartime poetry and in her 1916 novel, Non-Combatants and Others. Her readings suggest that the novel's resolution lies in recognition of the need for democratic intervention and peaceful protest. The chapter uses the affective conditions of 'futile rage' and 'hyperaesthesia' to explore Macaulay's First World War novel as a commentary on the impact of war on non-combatants as in its depiction of Alix's nervous reactions — her stammers, shivers, illness, and silences — but also as a moral confrontation. In 1916, Rose Macaulay worked in the Women's Land Army on a farm near Cambridge as part of the female labour force made available by the government to farmers who had seen their usual labourers join the armed services. Macaulay was outraged by the war and its effects on both combatants and non-combatants, but she was frustrated by its effect on opportunities for women.