2B1: An American Abroad: Perceptions of Americans in Buchan's WWI Thriller, Greenmantle

This talk will examine John Buchan’s presentation of American involvement in his World War I adventure novels, specifically his 1916 Greenmantle, to demonstrate that Buchan’s popular novels reinforced a notion of ideological power of Americans as uninvolved in the First World War. Considered the precursor to modern spy and thriller fiction, Buchan’s adventures often found British amateur spy, Richard Hannay, in the thick of some mysterious war-time plot to attack England. In his second Hannay novel, Greenmantle, Buchan’s plot is taken to Turkey to successfully decipher the code of Greenmantle after failing to prevent the on-set of the First World War in 1915’s The Thirty-Nine Steps. Because of the imminent threat and sheer danger, Hannay is accompanied by Peter Pienaar and an overweight American named John Blenkiron. While Blenkiron becomes a trusted associate of Hannay as the novel progresses, he is first described as “a sleepy Yankee” that “suffer[s]…from dyspepsia—duodenal dyspepsia. It gets me two hours after a meal and gives me hell just below the breast-bone. So I am obliged to adopt a diet. My nourishment is [sh, Sir, and boiled milk and a little dry toast” (Buchan 29). While Blenkiron’s weak disposition limits what he can eat, readers are encouraged to believe that it is his American ideology that prevents him from serving war efforts, however, he is vocal about his unique desire to participate in the glory of battle: “but these eyes have seen nothing gorier than a Presidential election. Say, is there any way I could be let into a scene of real bloodshed?” (Buchan 29-30). Because Blenkiron the spy represents the American persona that has never seen war, asking how that persona influences the larger characterization of Americans relies on, what Allan Hepburn suggests, is a critical “challenge [to] narrow definitions of political agency” (xiv). As a result of Buchan’s narrative, Blenkiron is less of a manifestation of ideologies, but rather an evaluation of British ideological perceptions of American. This critical evaluation, according to Michael Denning’s work on ideology in spy thrillers, “formulates a theory of disguise, an explanation of impersonation,” that spy novels engage in an attempt to mask the code of ideology (45). While Blenkiron plays a significant role in the novel, Hannay’s continuous evaluation of his behaviours and actions suggest that, like adventure novels in themselves, Buchan is critically disguising Blenkiron as an American that puts the group and plan at risk with his casual attitude toward the plan because of his American ideology.