The Poetics of John Steinbeck's Reporting from the Fronts of the Second World War

Abstract

The study is devoted to analyzing war journalism of the Second World War through the example of John Steinbeck's reports. The article explores the transformation of approaches to the coverage of military operations in comparison with the First World War, noting the expansion of the geographical scale of the conflict, the complication of correspondents' tasks, and the influence of censorship restrictions. The heterogeneous backgrounds of war correspondents are emphasized, these including such famous writers as Steinbeck, whose journalistic activities remain understudied.[1] Central to the investigation is the inherent tension between the demands of wartime propaganda and the pursuit of authenticity. The article meticulously examines the dual censorship systems – voluntary domestic censorship (seen as a necessary patriotic sacrifice) and mandatory battlefield censorship – enforced by bodies such as the Office of Censorship and the Office of War Information (OWI), which strictly controlled information flow, often sanitizing reality or delaying grim truths. Using Steinbeck's collected dispatches, Once There Was a War (1958) as a primary source, the study dissects his unique journalistic methods forged under these constraints. Steinbeck deliberately eschewed grand battle narratives, focusing instead on poignant ‘little stories’ of ordinary soldiers and civilians, employing irony, stark contrasts between mundane details and war's horrors, and utilizing literary techniques within documentary prose.   The article demonstrates how censorship and propaganda shaped the public image of war, while Steinbeck, balancing truth and patriotic narrative, sought to maintain a humanistic focus. It is concluded that his approach was unique, combining documentary accuracy with literary expression to capture not only the events but also the emotional experience of the participants while remaining within the requirements of wartime.