Pastoral quietude for shell shock and national recovery

Abstract

The pastoral quietude emanating from the English countryside was used as a primary therapeutic milieu for soldiers and the nation in recovery after WWI. The archives of Enham Village Centre in Hampshire, a model village experiment for ordinary ex-servicemen, have been brought to light to show how country peace and quiet was part of a national ideology not just for soldiers but for all those shocked by world conflict. Quiet as a sonic category has received scant attention in scholarship. Yet, here its perception and its construction articulate more than simply an absence of meaningful sound. Quiet was a container within which small sounds could expand and take on significant meanings. When the invention of the Armistice silence brought so many together to pause and remember, even those two sacred minutes were given over to the sound of leaves and pigeon wings to inhabit.