“Dunkirk was waiting there in us”: The Relevance of Wartime Setting in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day Sara Benesova College

The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen is a novel which follows a complicated, puzzling story taking place in the midst of Second World War time London. In a time, full of secrets and suspense, the main character Stella finds herself stuck in a love triangle and an endless questioning of the reality. Bowen really did write the novel during War in London, publishing it 1948, having a perfect opportunity to grasp the unsettling atmosphere at its peak. Although as the relationship drama very slowly unravels, through Bowen’s long description of the stream of thought, the war motif gets more and more quiet. This essay will tackle on the question, whether the wartime setting of The Heat of the Day is fundamental to the novel, or merely coincidental. It will look at the language of the novel and its direct mentions of war and the characters’ connection to it. Benedict Kiely said that Elizabeth Bowen is a writer “who must be taken very seriously or left completely alone.” (Kiely, 1950, p. 176) This essay will examine if, when speaking on the account of wartime novels, one should take Elizabeth Bowen seriously or rather leave her completely alone.

Bowen’s The Heat of the Day could be classified as a piece of late modernist literature...