Literary Figures and International Thought: The Archetypal Case of Thomas Hardy

Abstract

How may literary figures contribute to international thought? This article addresses this question using the previously neglected yet archetypal case of novelist and poet Thomas Hardy, who pioneered the term ‘international thought’ in the early 20th century. In its analysis of the Hardy case, the article offers a framework elucidating how literary figures may contribute to international thought not only through direct theoretical and conceptual advancements but also indirectly in their use of literary techniques to reimagine the international and through their public figure status. The analysis draws attention to Hardy’s challenge to anthropocentric approaches to peace and his educational, emotional and humanitarian approaches to internationalism that may offer valuable alternatives to dominant rationalist perspectives in addressing a world confronted by ecological crisis and populist leaderships. The article acknowledges tensions in Hardy’s international thought and offers the lineaments of a research agenda for further inquiry into literary figures and international relations.

Introduction

The first volume in the English language specifically dedicated to international thought opened with a quotation from British novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) and credited Hardy with introducing the term ‘international thought’ to demarcate a distinctive area for inquiry. ¹ Despite his considerable reputation at the time, Hardy’s influence in the early 20th-century development of international thought has generally been overlooked in subsequent studies, even though reference to literary figures is an increasingly common feature of histories of international thought. ² As Eileen Hunt has argued, although ‘Literary IR [International Relations] is just coming to be recognised as a distinct hermeneutical approach in political science and political theory, it has deep yet unsung historical roots’. ³

The emerging field of ‘Literary IR’ has frequently (but not exclusively) focused on the evocation of particular international conceptual and theoretical topics within particular works of literature, such as causality in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, ⁴ children’s rights in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, ⁵ love in Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora, ⁶ ‘technocratic worldmaking’ in Jules Verne’s work, ⁷ and everyday IR in Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Roads to Freedom, ⁸ to name a few prominent examples. ⁹ This article aims to contribute to this blossoming field by using the neglected yet archetypal case of Hardy to offer a novel tripartite framework unpacking how literary figures may contribute to international thought not only through their role in conceptual and theoretical advancements but also through their specific roles as literary figures, including through the use of literary devices and their public profile, thereby opening up the lineaments of research inquiry in this area for potential further exploration and development.

Spending most of his life in the southwest English county of Dorset, where he was born in 1840 and died in 1928, Hardy is best known for his depictions of rural English life in novels such as Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). Unable to afford university education, Hardy worked as an architectural draughtsman in London in 1862–7, prior to his literary career, which commenced with the publication of Desperate Remedies in 1871. Although he rarely travelled abroad, international themes were significant to much of Hardy’s literary output, not least his war poems and the volume that he considered his ‘greatest work’, The Dynasts, a vast closet drama depicting the Napoleonic Wars. ¹⁰ Hardy was one of the most influential public figures of his age, described as a ‘heavyweight’ in the ‘Edwardian literary establishment and . . . enjoyed tremendous prestige throughout the world among both elite and mass audiences’. ¹¹ His international acclaim persists, with for instance the Thomas Hardy Society currently constituting ‘one of the largest literary societies in the world’. ¹²

For the contemporary study of international questions, the next section of this article highlights how Hardy’s previously overlooked international thought offered significant contributions to considering peace, interdependence and internationalism, extending beyond dominant anthropocentric and rationalist perspectives. His consideration of animal welfare represented a notable break from anthropocentric approaches to peace promotion, while his educational approach to internationalism and emotional approach to interdependence offered alternatives to the rationalist perspectives that were preponderant both at the time and subsequently. ¹³ In considering these aspects, the article considers the value of turning to Hardy in view of emerging themes in contemporary IR, including non-human and emotional dimensions of world politics. ¹⁴

For the study of specifically of literary figures and international thought, Hardy is an especially helpful case not only on this basis but also given the wide range of types of contributions evident in his work, including the use of literary techniques in his novels, plays and poems and the repercussions of his high public profile. These make Hardy an ideal case for developing a framework for disaggregating literary figures’ contributions to international thought. Given his generative role in the early conceptualization in English of ‘international thought’, the case of Hardy may be considered not merely representative but archetypal. Archetypal case studies are those understood to ‘create a category’, ¹⁵ and as will be explored later Hardy was the first among those of whom it has been considered that ‘the term “international thought” was initially an invention of British publicists and litterateurs . . . in the years between the two World Wars’. ¹⁶ Moreover, as also discussed later, the melioristic conception of ‘international thought’ pioneered by Hardy was taken forward by others subsequently in the 1920s.

While some have undertaken fascinating research into how international thought may be interpreted through the medium of literary characters appearing in novels and poems, ¹⁷ here the primary focus is on the literary figures who create such works. Status as a literary figure involves two distinguishing properties that particularize the nature of their prospective contributions to international thought: first, their literary capabilities and output, and second, their public recognition for high literary achievement. ¹⁸ The next three sections of this article therefore offer a tripartite schema for approaching the particular contributions of literary figures to international thought with reference to the archetypal case of Hardy. The first part of the framework is elaborated in the next section, highlighting how literary figures may contribute to the development of international thought in the same way as any other thinkers – through the direct enunciation of conceptual and theoretical advances in understanding international affairs – yet making distinctive contributions in view of their literary approach. ¹⁹ The second part of the framework is elucidated in the subsequent section, which considers through the Hardy case how literary figures may use specific literary techniques in their novels, plays and poems to reimagine the international, in Hardy’s case involving the expression of international themes in the circumstances, characterizations, selection of words and commentary elaborated in his literary outputs. ²⁰ Then the third part of the framework explores through Hardy’s wider activities the contributions literary figures may make through their high public profile, in this case embracing both elite and popular awareness of and responsiveness to Hardy, with the analysis considering both the ways Hardy himself made use of his status to advance international causes, as well as the use of Hardy by others concerned with international questions. ²¹

In offering this tripartite analytical framework unpacking diverse contributions of literary figures to international thought, this article offers contributions bridging multiple areas of research in historical and literary international relations. The first part of the framework offers, in this case, a genealogical study of how discourses of the international evolved at the time IR as a discipline was beginning to emerge in English-speaking contexts, highlighting the distinctiveness of Hardy’s approaches extending beyond dominant rationalist and anthropocentric perspectives common among many contemporaries. The elaboration of Hardy’s literary techniques in the second part of the framework – on the other hand – offers a contribution extending the array of approaches to understanding narratives in international relations beyond the principal existing themes of ‘studies of strategic narratives of states’, ‘writing science as fiction’ or efforts to ‘to convey an understanding of international politics in their societal context through narrative analysis’. ²² The analysis of literary techniques combined with consideration of the use of literary status to advance international causes in the third part of the framework also provides a broader focus on literary figures’ contributions extending beyond studies primarily concentrating on the political manuscripts of authors also known for their literary works such as H. G. Wells. ²³

Since this article considers the Hardy case to unpack an array of literary figures’ prospective contributions to international thought, the sources consulted encompass not only Hardy’s literary output but also his published and unpublished correspondence, including materials in the Hardy archives, as well as the works and correspondence of those Hardy influenced. In this manner, the article draws on sources that shed light both on how Hardy himself sought to delineate and promote his approaches to international concerns, as well as how others responded to and used Hardy in their approaches. While this article aims to delineate the utility of the Hardy case, it also aims to avoid hagiography, and a dedicated discussion of tensions and limitations of Hardy’s approaches is also provided.

Intellectual Contributions: Beyond Anthropocentrism and Rationalism

The first pillar of the schema set out in this article for understanding literary figures’ contributions to international thought consists of their direct analytical contributions to the field. In Hardy’s case, besides pioneering in the English language use of the term ‘international thought’ (outlined in the final part of this section), his approach to the subject is notable for his advancements in considering the significance of animal welfare to peace promotion and in the development of approaches to internationalism rejecting rationalist assumptions. Hardy’s emphasis on emotional ties across borders contrasted sharply with the most prominent approaches to interdependence of the time that stressed economic linkages, while his consideration of animal welfare in peace advocacy was in sharp contrast to the anthropocentrism of many of his contemporaries. Before exploring each of these contributions, it is necessary to situate them in the context of Hardy’s wider thought on human relations and international affairs.

Like Tolstoy, Hardy was considered too pessimistic about the human condition to meet the emphasis on ‘work of an idealistic tendency’ on which the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature was conditional. ²⁴ However, Hardy described his approach as ‘distinctly meliorist. What are my books but one plea against “man’s inhumanity to man” – to women – and to the lower animals?’. ²⁵ Moreover, Hardy sympathized with Auguste Comte’s work, especially the notion of social progress as being ‘like a “looped orbit,” sometimes apparently backwards, but really always forwards’. ²⁶ Hardy’s general approach to human relations is therefore better described as ‘pessimistic meliorism’ with his excoriation of injustice accompanied by promotion of reforms to address social and political ills not only at the local level with which Hardy’s work is most commonly associated ²⁷ but also internationally. Given this melioristic outlook, Hardy may be situated among liberal perspectives on international relations, but besides his greater acknowledgement of limitations to progress than many of his contemporaries, he advanced distinctive positions on peace advancement and internationalism, which the subsequent sections will elaborate.

Hardy’s perspectives on international affairs evolved over his lifetime, with his melioristic outlook in some degree shattered by the onset of the First World War. ²⁸ There were also inconsistencies in his approach to which this article will return. Nevertheless, recurrent strands in Hardy’s international thought include opposition to war, critique of imperialism and promotion of a reformist approach to addressing international problems. These are worth briefly highlighting as they constitute the context for Hardy’s primary contributions to international thought considered next.

Hardy’s war opposition was sometimes outspoken, decrying in 1911 as ‘an insanity that people in the 20th Century should suppose force to be a moral argument’. ²⁹ Hardy’s views on the subject developed from his reading as a child of histories of the Napoleonic Wars, events he considered ‘a vast international tragedy’ and which formed the setting for The Dynasts. ³⁰

Although less prominent in his work than his opposition to war, Hardy’s critical perspective on empire is another recurrent theme, and critique of the brutal consequences of the ‘Imperial idea’ was evident in his reaction to the Boer War. ³¹ Breaking down in his writings the distinction between ‘primitive’ and ‘civilized’ on which colonialist thought of his era depended, Hardy’s works have been considered to ‘bring into question the very notion of empire’. ³² Hardy was critical of Rudyard Kipling, whom he argued ‘would have been a very great writer if the Imperialists had not got hold of him’. ³³ However, there were limitations to Hardy’s anti-imperialism, given the time he spent in the company of Lord Curzon, and in view of his critique of the Boer War concentrating on the suffering of white settlers rather than Indigenous peoples. ³⁴

Hardy’s critique of war was tempered by his consideration that ‘in the fulness of time, war will come to an end’. ³⁵ Like many contemporaries, Hardy advocated a reformist pacifist perspective, including provisions for pacific settlement of disputes and international disarmament. ³⁶ Hardy explicitly rejected revolutionary crusadism, claiming to ‘favour social re-adjustments rather than social subversions – remembering that the opposite of error is error still’. ³⁷

Hardy’s alternative to war and imperialism involved not only the pursuit of international reforms but also the reconceptualization of patriotism, and its extension to all countries. In a widely quoted letter during the First World War, he argued ‘nothing effectual will be done in the cause of peace till the sentiment of Patriotism be freed from the narrow meaning attaching to it in the past . . . – and be extended to the whole globe. On the other hand, that the sentiment of Foreignness – if the sense of contrast be necessary – attach only to other planets and their inhabitants if any’. ³⁸ In this manner, one may consider Hardy’s approach to be a form of pacifist cosmopolitanism, but one in which patriotism is not eliminated but rather extended across the world. In view of this cosmopolitanism, the analysis ahead will highlight how Hardy’s conceptualization of the ‘international’ and ‘international thought’ encompassed far more than just relations between states, but embraced much wider forms of cross-border relations among humans and even extending to relations with non-human beings too.

While Hardy was not alone in critiquing war and empire in the manner described so far, the role of animal welfare in his pacifism and the emotional, humanitarian and educational approach to internationalism that he put forward constitute important steps beyond the predominant approaches of his contemporaries, with significance to contemporary debates in addressing features that anthropocentric and rationalist approaches eschew. These aspects are therefore unpacked in more depth in the next sections.

Beyond Anthropocentric Pacifism

By the early 20th century, approaches to peace promotion ranged from absolutist pacifist perspectives rejecting all war through to reformist approaches advocating diverse transformations as preconditions for war’s abolition. ³⁹ A recurrent strand among these approaches was anthropocentrism: the actions of and consequences for human beings were the predominant focus both in diagnosing the problem of war and in the solutions put forward. An anthropocentric approach is, for instance, evident Norman Angell’s Great Illusion, in which he isolated human welfare from that of other lifeforms when claiming ‘our struggle is with our environment, not with one other’. ⁴⁰ Hardy’s approach, on the other hand, considered not only human suffering but also that of animals in his critique of war and the solutions he advocated.

While Hardy shared with other critics of war concern for the human suffering it caused, equally important to Hardy were the repercussions for animals. His proposals for international reforms, therefore, were not limited to mechanisms for pacific settlement and disarmament in common with others but also provisions for animal welfare. When W. T. Stead sought Hardy’s views on his Crusade of Peace agenda, ⁴¹ Hardy wrote ‘As a preliminary, all civilized nations could at least show their humanity by covenanting that no horses shall be employed in battle, except for transport. Soldiers at worst know what they are doing, but these animals are denied even the poor possibilities of glory and reward as a compensation for their sufferings’. ⁴² In this, Hardy not only recognized the importance of animal suffering in war but also the distinction between humans’ conscious participation in war and animals’ lack of choice in the matter, thereby providing a clear rationale for specifically addressing animal welfare missing from perspectives emphasizing only common suffering with human participants in war.

Hardy also advocated the moral rights of animals, recommending extending ‘the application of what has been called “The Golden Rule” from the area of mere mankind to that of the whole animal kingdom’ on the basis that Darwinian evolution had shown that previous assumptions about humanity being ‘a creation apart from all other creatures’ were false. ⁴³ In this manner, Hardy both broke down the artificial distinction between human and animal suffering and advocated the extension of maxims traditionally applied only to inter-human relations to human relations with animals.

Fellow author Eden Phillpotts observed that Hardy ‘felt an uncommon regard for animals . . . for his imagination enabled him to see life from their point of view’. ⁴⁴ In this manner, the distinctiveness of Hardy’s international thought was linked to his vocation as a novelist and poet whose imagination helped him see the world differently. As with his wider meliorist perspective on the ultimate demise of warfare, Hardy assumed the potential for the extension of human sympathy, claiming towards the end of his life that ‘the feeling of the general public towards animals was far more sensitive than it had been in his childhood’. ⁴⁵

This progress reflected in part the success of animal welfare groups such as the Humanitarian League which operated from 1891 to 1919 and campaigned ‘against the wanton ill-treatment of the lower animals’. ⁴⁶ Given its wider aim to promote ‘humaneness, viz: that it is iniquitous to inflict suffering . . . on any sentient being’, the League also campaigned against ‘cruelties inflicted by men on men’ including warfare. ⁴⁷ Hardy’s work, however, was distinctive for explicitly linking concern for animal welfare with the advancement of peace, and for highlighting as a basis on which to advance peace concern for the suffering of animals in war despite their not bearing any direct responsibility for wars’ origins.

Existing studies of the evolution of thought on animals and peace have tended either to concentrate on deep religious roots or to leap forward to environmentalist and pacifist new social movements in the late 20th century. ⁴⁸ Hardy’s perspective, by contrast, represents a significant intermediate step: a break from the religious basis of earlier approaches, extending to issues of war and peace the secular approach to animal welfare of groups such as the Humanitarian League. In contrast to his wider educational and humanitarian internationalism explored in the next section, Hardy’s advances in animal welfarist pacifist thought were not extensively cited, even though his writings on the topic were widely circulated. ⁴⁹ Nevertheless, they anticipate the challenge to anthropocentric approaches to peace that has risen to prominence in contemporary IR, and the move towards breaking down distinctions between humans and animals in the discipline. ⁵⁰ Echoing Hardy, it is now increasingly recognized that for peace to be sustainable it must be approached more holistically, taking into consideration ecological needs and making provision for animal welfare. ⁵¹ Moreover, Hardy provided an often overlooked argument in favour of such provision by distinguishing human culpability in war from its absence among other creatures.

Beyond Rationalist Internationalism

Reflecting the diverse approaches to peace promotion of the early 20th century was a rich literature on internationalism. ⁵² In the United Kingdom, Angell’s work on economic interdependence and Hobson’s on international organization were among the most extensively circulated. ⁵³ A common feature of these authors’ approaches to internationalism was rationalism, with Angell calling for advancement of ‘political rationalism’ against the ‘economically irrational’ pursuit of war, ⁵⁴ and Hobson’s ‘rationalist world-view’ calling for international government to ‘centralize and rationalize authority’. ⁵⁵ More generally, a ‘rationalistic worldview dominated the early years of the Anglo-Saxon pursuit of IR as an academic discipline’. ⁵⁶ Hardy, by contrast, emphasized human emotions rather than economic rationality as underpinning international cooperation.

Hardy’s international thought did include components that resonated with the rationalism of his contemporaries. For instance, his concern for animals in war was in part justified on an economic basis, claiming of his proposals for elimination of use of animals in war that their ‘feasibleness . . . would largely depend on the truth . . . that the cost of cavalry expended on infantry would produce more effective results’. ⁵⁷ Hardy’s references to war’s ‘absurdity’ also bore resemblance to Angell’s references to war’s ‘irrationality’, with Hardy claiming that ‘the moving force’ ‘in the cause of peace . . . may be . . . less perhaps a conviction of the iniquity of war than of its absurdity’: whereas for Angell public recognition of war’s irrationality could facilitate its demise, for Hardy this could be facilitated by recognition of its absurdity – an argument Hardy put forward a decade prior to publication of Angell’s Great Illusion. ⁵⁸

Nevertheless, Hardy claimed that ‘man cannot live by rationalism alone’, ⁵⁹ considering himself ‘rather an irrationalist than a rationalist, on account of his inconsistencies’. ⁶⁰ Hardy considered rationalists to neglect the significance of emotions and sentiment to the amelioration of human relations, whether personal or international, since he considered emotions to constitute ‘the second half of human needs’ beyond the reach of rationalist approaches focused on material concerns. ⁶¹ In consequence, Hardy advocated an alternative emotional, educational and humanitarian approach to internationalism in contrast to the rationalist perspectives of many of his contemporaries. Whereas for authors such as Angell education in political rationalism was necessary to overcome the problem of purportedly ‘irrational’ sentiment in the origins of war, ⁶² Hardy saw in emotions a means to transcend the dynamics contributing to the onset of war.

At the core of Hardy’s approach to internationalism was a conceptualization of interdependence that contrasted sharply with approaches such as Angell’s that emphasized mutual economic dependence among nations as a basis for rendering wars of conquest irrational. For Hardy, interdependence among nations was not so much economic as emotional and based on common human sentiment, with war rendered unjustifiable not on the basis of challenging economic rationality but rather on account of shattering common human sentiment. As Hardy put it as early as 1886, humanity constitutes ‘one great network or tissue which quivers in every part when one point is shaken, like a spider’s web if touched’. ⁶³

Hardy’s consideration of the importance of emotions in bringing nations together predated later efforts such as those of Fanny Fern Andrews, whose approach to emotions involved designing a curriculum for conflict resolution through empathy. ⁶⁴ His approach should also be distinguished from that of contemporaries such as Bertha von Suttner, who argued against treating ‘the problem of peace and war exclusively, or even principally, in its relations to the feelings and lives of women’ and ‘urged her listeners instead to adopt a rational approach to war’. ⁶⁵

Hardy’s emotional and humanitarian approach to internationalism may be considered a distinctive further form of internationalism, beyond the more richly studied capitalist, feminist, religious and socialist variants also present at the time Hardy wrote. ⁶⁶ Hardy viewed international humanitarian associations as an infrastructural manifestation of interdependence, potentially contributing to a more peaceful world, remarking of the Red Cross that ‘the existence of such a society as this leaves one not altogether without hope that during the next hundred years the relations between our inward and our outward progress may become less of a reproach to civilization’. ⁶⁷ To another association, he wrote ‘such societies . . . probably tend as much as anything to develop that spirit of kinship among men which, we may hope, will one day overrule national jealousies’. ⁶⁸ Whereas previous authors on transnational associations as a means towards peace had emphasized their provision of functional needs, ⁶⁹ for Hardy it was their infrastructural embodiment of humans’ emotional interdependence that was most significant.

Hardy’s emphasis on human sentiment and transnational humanitarian associations contrasts with the focus on ‘intervention for protection of individuals and minorities’ emphasized in standard accounts of the humanitarian strand to liberal internationalism, as well as from the ‘socio-educational’ approaches in standard histories that emphasize ‘belief in democratic system and international understanding’. ⁷⁰ Rather than national democracy, it is cross-border educational initiatives and intellectual cooperation that were central to Hardy’s approach to education in internationalism. He considered literary figures to have a particular role in international education, describing them as ‘the Thinkers . . . whose nature it is to cry aloud’. ⁷¹ As will be discussed later, he supported initiatives for international intellectual cooperation on the basis of their advancement of ‘basic principles of international education for promoting ethical ideals that shall conduce to a League of Peace’. ⁷²

While Hardy shared with other internationalist writers an emphasis on education, for Hardy it was education in common sentience as human beings and their emotional interdependence that was critical, rather than in economic self-interest (as emphasized by Angell) or potential means of conflict resolution (as suggested by Fern Andrews). The emphasis on emotions also contrasted sharply with those urging the overcoming of international problems through the application of technical expertise or information ordering. ⁷³ Moreover, in contrast to the more linear approaches of many contemporaries, Hardy’s ‘pessimistic meliorism’ and his acknowledgement of human irrationality tempered his consideration of how quickly progress could advance. While in support of initiatives such as the 1921 proposal for an International League of Thinkers, he expressed concern as to ‘how the Thinkers are to get themselves listened to by the Doers, think they never so wisely, [although] I believe there are ways’. ⁷⁴

For Hardy, states formed a significant obstacle to internationalism – in 1918 he asked rhetorically ‘Does any country think internationally?’, to which he replied ‘I should say, none’. ⁷⁵ Embedded in this statement is an understanding of the international that was not limited to relations among states, but rather embraced many forms of cross-border actor and moreover involved a normative orientation implying consideration for the concerns of others beyond any one nation’s domain. This perspective led him to be sceptical of approaches to internationalism emphasizing intergovernmental cooperation, telling Arnold Bennett in 1918 that ‘I don’t see how any sort of mutual League of Nations can prevent themselves from doing what they want to do’. ⁷⁶ On the other hand, Hardy asserted that private associationalism provided evidence of ‘the general growth of altruism everywhere’. ⁷⁷ Rather than states as agents of progress, it was in individual people, their sentience as human beings, their cooperation in private associations and their efforts towards international education and understanding where the potential for a more peaceful world lay in Hardy’s international thought. In this manner, Hardy put forward an approach to internationalism that offers scope for the advancement of pacific international relations without relying on assumptions of rational calculations of states’ mutual interests central to previously dominant approaches that have become increasingly questionable in the contemporary context featuring populist political leaders advocating explicitly anti-rationalist agendas. ⁷⁸

Conceptualizing ‘International Thought’

The humanitarian and educational focus evident in Hardy’s approach to internationalism was central to how he conceptualized ‘international thought’ when he publicized the term in the early 1920s, for instance in his widely circulated 1923 assertion that ‘the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world’. ⁷⁹ This was significant, since use of the words ‘international thought’ in combination prior to this point in the English language was rare and lacked systematic conceptualization.

Hardy’s explicitly normative conceptualization of international thought contrasted with later approaches using the term in a more descriptive manner, embracing any thinking concerning international questions. While Hardy shared with later writers such as Martin Wight an understanding of international thought that was not limited to the discourses of diplomats and scholars, he differed from Wight in considering international thought specifically to involve thinking that is somehow undertaken internationally, taking into consideration the concerns of those in other countries and not only one’s own. ⁸⁰ In this, Hardy’s approach was one emphasizing moral solidarity across borders, whereas later writers such as Wight considered also approaches emphasizing ‘international anarchy’ and ‘habitual intercourse’. ⁸¹ Although the latter, more open approach to ‘international thought’ prevails today, Hardy’s normative conceptualization was to be influential in the first English language works on international thought in the 1920s.

Hardy’s statement on international thought was provided in response to a request for a supportive message to be read out at the first international congress of PEN (‘Poets, Essayists and Novelists’), a private international association which sought in the words of its first president Forsyte Saga author John Galsworthy to promote ‘international understanding and peace’ by providing a means of intellectual exchange among the writers of the world. ⁸² For Hardy, the efforts of international associations such as PEN towards ‘the exchange of international thought’ could help bring into fruition his emotional and humanitarian internationalist vision of a world in which ‘sentiments’ of human fellowship would ‘prevail’ embedded in a ‘patriotism not confined to realms, but circling the earth’. ⁸³

Hardy’s perspective on the exchange of international thought was taken further by Galsworthy when he published the first dedicated volume in English on international thought later in 1923, which opened with an epigraph of the statement Hardy had prepared for PEN. Galsworthy’s volume built on Hardy’s approach to internationalism emphasizing non-governmental over state action: ‘governments are competitive trustees for competitive sections of mankind’, stated Galsworthy, whereas ‘the exchange of international thought’ – especially among those in ‘science, finance, and the press, in service to a new idealism’ – could offer the potential means by which ‘we might hear the rustle of salvation’s wings’, elaborating the domains of human activity where international thought in Hardy’s understanding may be expected to be undertaken. ⁸⁴ Galsworthy’s elaboration of Hardy’s approach to international thought in this volume was the culmination of many years of correspondence between Galsworthy and Hardy, with a view to bringing together voices from ‘religion, science, the arts, education and pacific life (outside politics) so that governments may be afforded convincing evidence that “Thought” is against . . . war’. ⁸⁵

Like Hardy, Galsworthy’s conception of ‘international thought’ was meliorist, and such an approach continued in the leading works on the topic in the 1920s. ⁸⁶ The first English language ‘history of international thought’ by Florence Melian Stawell published in 1929, for instance, took forward a meliorist approach to international thought premised on the possibilities of progressive education, but in her case laying greater emphasis on the scope of intergovernmental cooperation in contrast to Hardy’s and Galsworthy’s emphasis on private associationalism. ⁸⁷ Over time, however, the terminology of ‘international thought’ was to lose its normative orientation, and as Armitage argued it has now come to denote ‘more expansive and less teleological’ consideration of ‘the activity of theoretical reflection upon international affairs’. ⁸⁸

Literary Techniques: Hardy’s Literary Output and International Thought

As a literary figure, Hardy could advance his perspectives on international concerns both through his literary output, and by making use of his status as a high-profile public figure. These constitute the second and third pillars of this article’s schema for understanding literary figures’ contributions, which will be explored in turn in this section and the next. As noted earlier, it was observed of Hardy that his literary imagination enabled him to perceive the world differently. Moreover, through his novels, plays and poetry he was also able to spark in the imagination of others different ways of perceiving international affairs. This section explores how Hardy used diverse literary techniques, from the general evocation of themes in his work, through to his characterizations and his specific choice of words, to convey his perspectives on war, peace and internationalism. In so doing, the analysis expands the repertoire of tools of narrative analysis in international relations to consideration of the techniques deployed among literary figures. ⁸⁹

International themes are present in several of Hardy’s best-known novels. ⁹⁰ Critiques of the incoherence of imperialist claims to purported ‘civilizing missions’ are evident in both Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. In the latter, Hardy used the medium of Sue Bridehead to put forward the claim that ‘the social moulds civilization fits us into have no more relation to our actual shapes than the conventional shapes of the constellations have to the real star patterns’. ⁹¹ However, Hardy considered two sets of work in particular – the three volumes of his ‘epic-drama’ The Dynasts and his war poetry – best to embody his international thought, ⁹² so these are the primary focus here.

The Dynasts, Hardy’s most extensive and in Hardy’s view his ‘greatest’ manuscript, was his most ambitious treatment of international phenomena in his literary works. ⁹³ That this was more than just an historical drama was evident to its readers, conveying in its general approach a political message denouncing the futility of aggressive warfare. George Orwell stated ‘the main appeal of The Dynasts is not in the verse, but in the grandiose and rather evil vision of armies marching and counter-marching through the mists, and men dying by hundreds of thousands in the Russian snows, and all for absolutely nothing’. ⁹⁴

A particular feature of The Dynasts is the contrast depicted between the abstract planning for war by elites and their detachment from the vividly described suffering of combatants and civilians. Hardy also used the device of ‘spirits’ observing the conflict to provide commentary embodying his perspectives, with the ‘spirit ironic’ highlighting the distinction between those who fight and those who send them into battle, stating ‘warfare mere’ is ‘plied by the managed for the managers . . . by frenzied folks who profit nought / for those who profit all!’ ⁹⁵ This contrast is also reflected in the characterization of Napoleon as a vain and unscrupulous man in contrast to the largely sympathetic portrayal of ordinary soldiers: Hardy emphasized in The Dynasts ‘the distance the Emperor keeps between himself and ordinary people’, with his ‘identity with the men in the ranks . . . a thing of show only, lasting “but for a wink-while”’. ⁹⁶

Hardy’s war poetry written during the Boer War conveyed a similar pacifist message to that of The Dynasts, with one poem – The Dead Drummer, concerning a hastily buried Wessex boy killed in battle – considered ‘the finest war-time expression of how “the poetry is in the pity”’ prior to the First World War. ⁹⁷ The futility of innocent life lost is put pithily in this poem’s reference to how ‘Young Hodge the Drummer never knew . . . the meaning of the broad Karoo’ as his body was thrown into a ditch ‘uncoffined – just as found’. ⁹⁸ Hardy’s poems showed concern not only for those in battle but also those left behind, with, for instance, The Colonel’s Soliloquy referring to his grieving wife who ‘now . . . suffers more than at my leaving some twenty years ago’. ⁹⁹ In poems such as these Hardy harnessed the power of emotions and sympathy for the suffering of ordinary people in war to facilitate the resonance of his pacifist message among readers, and embodying his emotional understanding of human interdependence.

Other poems provided more direct critique of war’s futility in settling disputes, with the poem Embarcation referring to the use of armed forces to ‘argue in the selfsame bloody mode’ of the past as a means of conflict resolution which ‘still fails to mend’ in ‘this late age of thought, and pact, and code’. ¹⁰⁰ This last phrase conveyed Hardy’s disillusionment with efforts to overcome war through diplomacy, as did Hardy’s description of the Congress of Vienna in The Dynasts. In the latter, the ‘chorus of ironic spirits’ describes how as ‘the Congress of Vienna sits . . . war becomes a war of wits’ and ‘every Power perpends withal, / its dues as large, its friends’ as small’ until ‘Priests of Peace prepare once more / to fight as they have fought before’. ¹⁰¹

While Hardy’s literary works both critiqued war’s futility and the ineffectiveness of diplomacy, they also evoked his emotional, humanitarian and educational approach to internationalism. For instance, his argument that humanity constituted ‘one great network or tissue which quivers in every part when one point is shaken’ was evident in his war poetry in its emphasis on the ‘personal, human’ as well as local repercussions of war. ¹⁰² Nevertheless, The Dynasts, concludes with optimism regarding the prospects for education in common humanity in ultimately overcoming war, with the last lines involving the chorus of the spirits asserting ‘that the rages / of the ages / shall be cancelled’ with ‘consciousness the Will informing, till It fashion all things fair’. ¹⁰³ Similarly, his war poem Departure concludes with the anticipation that ‘saner softer polities’ may ultimately ‘have play in each proud land’ with ‘patriotism, grown’ to ‘circle earth and seas’. ¹⁰⁴

Hardy’s choice of terminology was a significant component of his approach to conveying in his literary works his perspectives on peace and internationalism. This is especially evident in his selection of words to advance his animal welfarist alternative to anthropocentric pacifism. To break down the artificial barrier between perceptions of human and animal, Hardy frequently deployed the term ‘creature’ in his literary writings to refer to both. ¹⁰⁵ He also wrote of animals’ suffering in war highlighting the contrast between human consciousness of and responsibility for going to war and animals’ lack thereof. His poem Horses Aboard, for instance, states of horses on a warship ‘Whither are they sailing? They do not know’, going on to describe their destiny as ‘war-waste’ and how the horses ‘appear wrenched awry / From the scheme Nature planned for them, – wondering why’, attributing to horses human-like capacity to ‘wonder’ while at the same time not being conscious of or responsible for what humans have determined for them. ¹⁰⁶

The principal techniques by which Hardy advanced his perspectives on international questions through his literary output therefore included: (i) the general evocation of the misery of war and the way in which it breaches human interdependence; (ii) his characterization of decision-makers and those affected by their decisions emphasizing the disregard of the latter by the former; (iii) the use of words in such a way as to break down anthropocentric assumptions on rationales for pacifism; and (iv) the use of media such as ‘spirits’ directly to convey Hardy’s perspectives on peace and internationalism. This is an indicative array of techniques which studies into further literary figures’ methods may prospectively supplement.

The influence of Hardy’s evocation of his perspectives on international themes in his literary output is evident in the way in which his works served as significant reference points in prominent early 20th century IR texts. Arnold Toynbee’s Survey of International Affairs, for instance, in considering the importance of psychological in contrast to material factors referred to Hardy’s approach in The Dynasts to back up this point when considering the early 1930s context, stating: ‘as . . . in The Dynasts, the psychological forces were the real actors on the stage, and the material forces – nations and states and Governments, bankers and politicians, commodities and currencies, – were their creatures, which moved under the impulsion like manipulated marionettes’. ¹⁰⁷ Hardy’s emphasis of psychological/emotional over material factors in works such as The Dynasts was influential across the world, noted also in works of international political economy in the period such as that of Indian economist Khushal Talaksi Shah who quoted this reference by Toynbee to Hardy to support his argument that ‘the entire economic system is . . . at the mercy of the chaotic forces’. ¹⁰⁸

The provision of pithy quotations that IR scholars could use to try to enhance the resonance of their arguments was a significant utility Hardy’s literary output provided for the developing discipline. Norman Bentwich’s 1933 work on The Religious Foundations of Internationalism quoted The Dynasts when considering the argument that ‘the Christian religion has more often been a factor for war than for peace’, noting the remark of one of Hardy’s characters: ‘After 2000 years of Mass; we have got as far as poison gas’. ¹⁰⁹ Evocative quotations from Hardy’s literary works have remained a useful tool for IR scholars into the present, with for example the quotation from the spirit sinister in The Dynasts that ‘War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading’ being very frequently cited when considering the social construction of warfare and its popularity as an object of study. ¹¹⁰

The influence of Hardy’s literary works extended to policy-makers, who in several instances wrote to Hardy to highlight how his literary output had affected them. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith told Hardy of the value to him of The Dynasts, ¹¹¹ while newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe wrote of how during the First World War Hardy’s work helped him ‘to bear things’. ¹¹² In some instances, diplomats perceived reflections of Hardy’s writings in the events in which they were participating: for example, a British delegate to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference informed Hardy of how he had been sent by ‘the War Office . . . to see that the ideologues do not make war impossible’, remarking that the ‘puny efforts to ingratiate peace when there is no peace . . . would . . . find their appropriate place in another Dynasts’. ¹¹³

Hardy’s literary output therefore served multiple purposes for those writing on and working in international affairs, including: (i) providing a reference point capturing the emotional and human dimensions of world politics that established rationalistic and materialistic work eschewed; (ii) serving as a source of quotations neatly and evocatively capturing perspectives on international affairs; and (iii) being perceived by policy-makers as foreshadowing the events they were involved in and providing means to reflect on them. These three features are indicative of the array of purposes served by literary works that merit further investigation.

Literary Status and International Thought: Hardy’s Global Influence

The third main dimension of this article’s analysis of literary figures’ contributions to international thought relates to the impact of their status as public figures, involving both the direct efforts of the literary figure to influence others, and the ways in which others make use of them. Each of these will be unpacked ahead, after introducing the context of this aspect of Hardy’s role as a literary figure. While much is now made of the generic notion of ‘celebrity diplomacy’, there is – as Richey and Budabin have highlighted – a need for greater acknowledgement of how ‘the actual practices of celebrities are quite diverse’. ¹¹⁴ The analysis here addresses this concern by illuminating the specific forms of influence of a particular kind of celebrity – the global literary figure.

Such was Hardy’s status as a global literary figure that he was used as a case study of cultural globalization by Floyd William Owen in his pioneering 1930 study of International Organization: ‘Thomas Hardy belonged essentially to his native Dorset, but Dorset could not keep him for herself. Nor could England. . . . He was part of the culture of the world’. ¹¹⁵ Correspondents in the United States described how Hardy was ‘long honoured’ there, while the Alliance Française stated ‘the whole of France considers Mr Hardy’s works as the greatest of the present’. ¹¹⁶ Moreover, Hardy wrote in a context in which literary figures were among the most influential individuals of the time, described as occupying ‘a pre-eminent position as a specialized elite’, ¹¹⁷ yet their influence also reached a wide public given widespread belief in the ‘educative powers’ of literature. ¹¹⁸

In this context, Hardy could promote his international thought not only through his literary works but also through varied public writings and correspondence on contemporary international themes, which he could be confident could reach wide audiences. The elucidation of international thought through public correspondence and speeches was previously spearheaded by political figures such as Cobden and Bright. ¹¹⁹ In Hardy’s case, circulation of public letters was one of the principal means of communicating his novel perspectives on pacifism and internationalism. His arguments concerning horses in war and application of the ‘Golden Rule’ to all lifeforms were in part set out in public letters to W. T. Stead and the Humanitarian League and were widely circulated in outlets including the Daily Chronicle and The Times. ¹²⁰ As for his humanitarian and educational approach to internationalism, this was disseminated through his frequently reproduced statement for PEN on the ‘exchange of international thought’. ¹²¹

Hardy used his ability to reach audiences through public statements not only to promote his perspectives on international questions but also to defend those of other writers. When The Times published a critical editorial on Leo Tolstoy’s essay on war ‘Bethink Yourselves’, Hardy wrote a public letter published in that newspaper on 28 June 1904 stating that despite its ‘incoherence as a moral system’ and reliance on theological terminology, Tolstoy’s piece still deserved recognition for its ‘masterly general indictment of war as a modern principle’. ¹²²

Hardy was also responsive to requests of others whose objectives he considered complementary to his, extending to the production of literary works dedicated to international causes. When William Goode of the Commission for Relief in Belgium requested of Hardy in 1914 ‘“something else” which would be of such incalculable value in helping us to get food and money from America’, Hardy replied with ‘two eight-line stanzas called “An Appeal to America on Behalf of the Belgian Destitute”’, which was published by the Commission and reprinted in the New York Times. ¹²³ Hardy also directly raised funds for international humanitarian associations, with proceeds from performances of The Dynasts during the First World War making ‘respectable profits for the Red Cross’. ¹²⁴

Organizations with objectives aligned to Hardy’s frequently sought supportive statements from him. His well-known statements on animal welfarist pacifism for the Humanitarian League and on international intellectual exchange for PEN were written in response to requests from these organizations, which they proceeded to circulate widely. PEN reported to Hardy on how his words on international intellectual exchange were ‘received with acclamation’ and they made extensive use of them in promoting such an approach to international cooperation. ¹²⁵ Organizers of petitions on international questions also frequently sought to include Hardy’s name among public lists of distinguished signatories, with Hardy acquiescing for example in the case of Arthur Symonds’ 1913 memorial on lasting peace and the New York World’s 1920 disarmament campaign. ¹²⁶ Hardy also provided a Christmas message on world peace for The Times in 1921, in which he expressed cautious optimism. ¹²⁷ However, when Hardy was requested to support international initiatives of which he was sceptical – such as the movement for the establishment of a League of Nations – he distanced himself by claiming despite his open support of other causes that he was ‘neither a public man nor a writer on public affairs’. ¹²⁸

The appearance of Hardy’s support was valued by diverse internationalist initiatives, especially those focused on international literary cooperation, which sought Hardy’s participation in their organizing committees. In 1916 he agreed to participate in the Royal Society of Literature’s committee of literary figures ‘for the furtherance of an intellectual entente among friendly nations’, ¹²⁹ and when Amy Dawson Scott founded PEN in 1921, she appointed Hardy as its ‘English Representative of Literature’ despite his confirming that he could ‘do nothing in connection with the Club’ beyond provision of supportive statements. ¹³⁰ Dawson Scott noted Hardy’s importance to their work given ‘the veneration in which [he was] held’ abroad. ¹³¹ Moreover, PEN aimed to take forward Hardy’s educational internationalist approach involving cooperation beyond politics, with its president informing Hardy that ‘we stand for keeping literature outside politics, as one of the few, perhaps the one disinterested link between peoples’. ¹³² Similarly, Nicholas Murray Butler of the Carnegie Endowment sought Hardy’s participation in his efforts towards international intellectual cooperation given his literary status. ¹³³

Given his formidable public reputation as a literary figure, political leaders frequently sought to be associated with Hardy, and besides awarding him honours such as the Order of Merit, UK prime ministers invited him to social events, sent him birthday messages, and in Stanley Baldwin’s case served as a pall-bearer at Hardy’s funeral. ¹³⁴ Moreover, politicians recognized that Hardy’s literary figure status could be helpful in the development and propagation of international policy. A notable example was the Wellington House conference of 2 September 1914 initiated by David Lloyd George to assemble literary figures including Hardy, Wells and Galsworthy, among others. Hardy recorded the meeting’s purpose as to consider ‘the British case and principles in the war’ and organize public statements in support of them by ‘well-known men of letters’. ¹³⁵ It resulted in an ‘Authors’ Declaration’ published in The Times on 18 September 1914, appealing ‘to defend the rights of small nations, and to maintain the free and law-abiding ideals of Western Europe’ signed by 53 men and women authors. ¹³⁶

Besides responding to invitations by policy-makers to participate in their work, Hardy also influenced policy-makers through invitations to them to visit his Dorset home. His diverse visitors included T. E. Lawrence, Ellen Glasgow and Romain Rolland. In some cases, he was considered a mentor, for instance frequent visitor Elliott Felkin, who went on to serve as a civil servant at the League of Nations and United Nations and wrote of the formative influences of visiting Hardy in 1918–9. ¹³⁷ Hardy’s greatest influence, however, was on other writers on international themes, especially Galsworthy, as discussed earlier. Leonard Woolf also found inspiration in the political ideals in Hardy’s works ¹³⁸ and declared to Hardy it was ‘always my ambition to have something of yours’ in his periodical The Nation and Athenaeum. ¹³⁹ French peace advocate Romain Rolland, who considered Hardy to be ‘England’s greatest writer’, was also influenced by Hardy, admiring especially The Dynasts’ consideration of humanity and its trajectory. ¹⁴⁰

In summary, as an internationally renowned literary figure, Hardy was able to influence international thought not only in his literary output but also through his public figure status, when he chose to use it. Hardy made use of this status to advance his ideas through multiple methods, including issuing public letters and statements, publicly backing and fundraising for organizations he supported, and directly participating in these bodies. These are indicative of the means available to literary figures that investigations into further literary figures may expand upon.

Hardy’s eminent status was such that it was not only those in the literary field who sought the cachet of association with him, but also wider institutions and policy-makers. Both individual internationalists and organizations with an internationalist agenda saw in Hardy a source of inspiration as well as a means of enhancing their public support through Hardy’s public statements, as did diverse policy-makers and diplomats, indicative of the variety of political actors that literary figures may influence. Hardy was also used as a source of potential critique, for instance, when Stead sought his views on the Crusade of Peace. Given his global reputation, the efforts of high-level policy-makers to reach out to him, and his pursuit of specific international causes, Hardy also anticipated many of the features now associated with celebrity diplomacy, ¹⁴¹ and in his case, we have been able to focus on how he used in particular his literary reputation to advance his approaches to internationalism and pacifism.

Tensions and Limits

Hardy’s influence as a literary figure extended beyond the advancement of objectives which he himself sought to promote. Both in Hardy’s time and since, Hardy has been used by others in support of positions on international questions that do not match well the perspectives on peace and international thought that he put forward.

As an example, during his lifetime, Hardy’s support was sought for Henri Barbusse’s Clarté movement, which aimed to create a ‘League of Intellectual Solidarity for the Triumph of the International Cause’. Hardy expressed sympathy for Clarté’s aims for intellectual cooperation, but it went on to name him as a member of its organizing committee even as it aligned with the international communist movement despite Hardy’s affirmation that he could not take active part in leading the movement and despite Hardy’s antipathy towards revolutionary approaches. ¹⁴²

In more recent work on IR, on the other hand, Hardy has most commonly been referred to not in respect of the internationalist and pacifist perspectives for which he was influential in his lifetime but instead when considering cynical perspectives on the appeal of war, with the words of the ‘spirit sinister’ on war making ‘rattling good history’ being used to introduce textbook chapters considering realist perspectives on war and peace far detached from Hardy’s primary perspectives on international themes. ¹⁴³

The use of Hardy’s work in this way reflects some of the ambiguities and tensions in Hardy’s international thought. Despite his pacifism, he confided to Florence Henniker that he found war a fascinating subject on which to write, asserting that ‘when I feel that it must be, few persons are more martial than I, or like better to write of war’. ¹⁴⁴ In spite of his horror at the First World War’s onset, he was even to suggest to War Secretary Lord Kitchener approaches to recruiting for the war effort. ¹⁴⁵ In respect of his concern for animal welfare, Hardy also admitted inconsistency: for instance, when asked if he was vegetarian he replied ‘Oh no, I’m not consistent’. ¹⁴⁶ As noted earlier, Hardy considered his inconsistencies to correspond to his scepticism with respect to rationalist approaches. Hardy described his philosophical approach in general as being ‘of a very tentative and inconsistent pattern’. ¹⁴⁷

Hardy’s inconsistencies were further evident in his considerations of imperialism: despite his anti-imperialist reputation and scepticism with respect to claims of civilizing missions, he demonstrated a lack of concern for Indigenous populations in imperial territories. In a letter to Israel Zangwill Hardy expressed views consistent with imperialist misconceptions of ‘virgin territory’ when he suggested a ‘proposed Jewish state on virgin soil as a stepping-stone to Palestine . . . in, say, East Africa’. ¹⁴⁸ Hardy’s position on women in public life was also ambiguous, eschewing public association with the women’s suffrage cause, albeit informing Millicent Fawcett in 1906 that by this point he approved of it. ¹⁴⁹

Like many other literary figures of the day, Hardy’s elite status limited the extent to which he could represent the marginalized groups whose suffering was such a key theme in his writings. The tension between status as a literary public figure and a writer’s vocation is a problem that Hardy recognized, with his friend Henry Newbolt observing that Hardy had ‘a strong feeling that a writing man should spend most of his leisure in solitude’ but remarking that in practice ‘when success comes to a writer he generally follows the opposite course – he accepts invitations and takes a place in society; he changes his habits and his tastes, till he has almost lost the thread of his own life’. ¹⁵⁰

Conclusion

Hardy offers to the study of international thought much more than his quotation on war as ‘rattling good history’ that has tended to constitute the sole reference made to him in introductory textbooks. His work is notable not only for pioneering the term ‘international thought’ but also for putting forward approaches to the subject that encompassed aspects that deserve greater attention. In his emotional, educational and humanitarian approach to internationalism, Hardy advanced a significant alternative to the rationalist approaches that dominated the study of the subject in the early 20th century. Moreover, Hardy’s perspectives on peace and war went far beyond the anthropocentrism that characterized the work of many other early 20th-century writers. In these aspects, attention to Hardy complements the turn in recent years to non-human and emotional dimensions of world politics and warrants consideration given contemporary disillusionment with traditional rationalist and anthropocentric approaches in a context of global crises and ecological emergency.

Moreover, consideration of Hardy helps to open up the research agenda on literary figures and international thought. As was delineated through the case of Hardy, literary figures may make substantial contributions to international thought not only through the direct provision of conceptual and theoretical innovations but also indirectly through their literary output and use of their status as public figures. By unpacking each of these aspects, this article has provided a more specific delineation of the different elements by which literary figures may contribute to international thought, rather than limiting its focus to the political ideas he espoused. In Hardy’s case, his literary works deployed a wide range of techniques encompassing contrasting characterizations, media such as spirits, and expanded scope of words to put forward his perspectives on internationalism, war and peace. As a public figure, Hardy also made use of diverse approaches including public statements, petitioning and participating in associational and government initiatives. Both international thinkers and leading political figures drew upon Hardy in the development of early 20th-century international theory and practice. Exploration of the direct and indirect contributions of further literary figures offers the potential to expand on the array of approaches delineated in this article with reference to Hardy.