Owen, Wittgenstein, and the postwar battle with language

The Great War left an indelible mark of horror and brutality on the Western imagination, not least on how we have come to understand the toll wars take on their survivors. This article gauges some of that effect through an examination of the work of two noted veterans: Wilfred Owen and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Through a discussion of Owen’s poetry in tandem with Wittgenstein’s earlier philosophy, I address the toll violence exacts on language; namely, on the attempt not to describe but to show war.