This article focuses on the representation of Canadian prisoners of war in Alan Cumyn’s Great War novel The Famished Lover (2006). Relying on historical sources, I attempt to show how the experience of captivity, marginalized for a long time in historical research, alters our understanding of the First World War and the evolution of forced labour in the twentieth century. I approach Canadian POWs as missing persons, disappeared in the biopolitical regime of the POW camp, the post-war discourses of commemoration, and the gaps in cultural memory. The article explores Cumyn’s representation of the camp as a biopolitical space and the production of the POW as Agambenian bare life. Central to the analysis are issues of trauma, masculinity, and heroic defiance. I also engage with the long-lasting sequelae of captivity, as well as the difficult reintegration of the returned POW, based on the example of the protagonist of the novel.

本文重点介绍艾伦·卡明 (Alan Cumyn) 的大战小说《饥饿的情人》 (2006)中加拿大战俘的表现。依靠历史资料，我试图展示长期在历史研究中被边缘化的囚禁经历如何改变我们对第一次世界大战和二十世纪强迫劳动演变的理解。我将加拿大战俘视为失踪人员，消失在战俘营的生命政治体制、战后纪念话语、文化记忆的空白中。这篇文章探讨了 Cumyn 将营地描述为一个生命政治空间，并将战俘的生产描述为阿甘本式的赤裸生命。分析的核心是创伤、男子气概和英勇反抗的问题。基于小说主角的例子，我还涉及长期囚禁的后遗症，以及返回战俘的艰难重新融入社会。