Abstraction and Artistic Volition: Expressionist Reflection on Siegfried Sassoon’s Select War Poems: Attack, Glory of Women, Counter-Attack, Expression of War experiences, and Dreamers

This research explores representation of reality in Siegfried Sassoon’s selected poems. It uses expressionist elements such as abstraction, artistic volition and interior monologue. It takes light from the expressionist artists such as Van Gogh, Edvard Munch and Strindberg. Expressionism is a style of artistic creation. It expresses feelings. It rejects imitation, mimesis and representation of the external world. It promotes spontaneity through the artistic volition, abstraction and interior monologue. It argues that reality is not objective. It is subjective, varying from person to person as individuals have the capacity to redefine it. Sassoon reveals truth through irony, fear of death, psychological strain and physical exhaustion of the young soldiers. He narrates an ironic difference between the horrific experiences of soldiers and the calm conditions in which other civilians live. This work provides a new outlook to the readers to visualize Sassoon’s poetry in a new perspective.