The War Experience in All Quiet on the Western Front: Dehumanization and (Re)humanization of Death
Abstract
The First World War exposed the horrors of an industrialized slaughter in which the “proletariat” soldiers were mere fragile and easily replaceable figures. The anonymous mass death experienced on the front initiated an anthropological turn in the conception of human value. The famous novel by Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front crudely showed the dehumanization of the soldier in the war conflict, only mitigated by the feeling of camaraderie. However, the work also testifies how the “face of the Other”, following the formulation of Emmanuel Levinas, can also lead to an ethical reconsideration of human life in the context of war.
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