{"product_id":"the-embattled-self-9780801445231","title":"The Embattled Self","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow did the soldiers in the trenches of the Great War understand and explain battlefield experience, and themselves through that experience? Situated at the intersection of military history and cultural history,\u003ci\u003e The Embattled Self\u003c\/i\u003e draws on the testimony of French combatants to explore how combatants came to terms with the war. In order to do so, they used a variety of narrative tools at handrites of passage, mastery, a character of the soldier as a consenting citizen of the Republic. None of the resulting versions of the story provided a completely consistent narrative, and all raised more questions about the truth of experience than they answered. Eventually, a story revolving around tragedy and the soldier as victim came to dominateeven to silenceother types of accounts. In thematic chapters, Leonard V. Smith explains why the novel structured by a specific notion of trauma prevailed by the 1930s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmith canvasses the vast literature of nonfictional and fictional testim\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmith's analysis of these narratives makes for absorbing reading.... I particularly enjoyed Smith's analysis of Marc Bloch's war diary and the narrative he wrote from it several months later. It is an illuminating example of the conundrum that faced the war writers—and perhaps all writers who attempt to construct narrative from experience. \u003ci\u003eThe Embattled Self \u003c\/i\u003estands on the intersection of literature and history.... The task of turning war experience into narrative was difficult—even perilous—work. For many, writing about the experience of war was as tortured as the war experience itself. Readers will gain from Smith's book a greater understanding and respect for both the genre of war testimony and its embattled practitioners.\u003c\/p\u003e * H-France Reviews *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book's virtues include a diligent use of underutilized first-person French sources, a careful analytic eye to interpret those sources, and a sincere empathy for the men who lived through the horrendous wars of the trenches. By examining the soldier as witness to the great tragedy that the war represented, Smith dissects the scholarly tension of relying on testimonies that were themselves as much about the narratives of war as about soldiers’ actual, lived experiences. A reexamination of soldiers’ testimony, Smith posits, will return to them their basic humanity and introduce a great deal of complexity to a picture that has for too long been overly simplified.\u003c\/p\u003e * American Historical Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: Experience, Narrative, and Narrator in the Great War1. Rites of Passage and the Initiation to Combat2. The Mastery of Survival: Death, Mutilation, and Killing3. The Genre of Consent4. The Novel and the Search for ClosureConclusion\u003ci\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MB - Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51038180180311,"sku":"9780801445231","price":37.05,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780801445231.jpg?v=1750939381","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-embattled-self-9780801445231","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}