Description
Book SynopsisOur collective memories of World War II and Vietnam have been shaped as much by memoirs, novels, and films as they have been by history books. In Welcome to the Suck, Stacey Peebles examines the growing body of contemporary war stories in prose, poetry, and film that speak to the American soldier's experience in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Stories about war always encompass ideas about initiation, masculinity, cross-cultural encounters, and trauma. Peebles shows us how these timeless themes find new expression among a generation of soldiers who have grown up in a time when it has been more acceptable than ever before to challenge cultural and societal norms, and who now have unprecedented and immediate access to the world away from the battlefield through new media and technology.
Two Gulf War memoirs by Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) and Joel Turnipseed (Baghdad Express) provide a portrait of soldiers living and fighting on the cusp of the major political and te
Trade Review
Remarkable literature and film are beginning to emerge from both the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War. Peebles explores the new landscape of such works.... Along the way, the author demarcates the new digital battlefield—blogs and Skype—that should reduce alienation but paradoxically call it into heightened relief. Part of the context of these works is the cynicism of the soldiers whose first political memory is, as Peebles puts it, an image of Monica Lewinsky, but who are still idealistic as they enter the war. This classic disjuncture empowers these works and transforms the destruction, waste, stupidity, and disillusionment that are part of all wars into powerful, moving art. Summing Up: Highly recommended for all readers.
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Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Lines of Sight: Watching War in Jarhead and My War: Killing Time in Iraq2. Making a Military Man: Iraq, Gender, and the Failure of the Masculine Collective3. Consuming the Other: Blinding Absence in The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell and Here, Bullet4. One of U.S.: Combat Trauma on Film in Alive Day Memories and In the Valley of ElahConclusionBibliography
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