
Total Mobilization
World War II and American Literature
Roy Scranton(Author)
University of Chicago Press
Will be published approx. on 9. August 2019
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-226-63728-0 (ISBN)
Description
Since World War II, the story of the trauma hero--the noble white man psychologically wounded by his encounter with violence--has become omnipresent in America's narratives of war, an imaginary solution to the contradictions of American political hegemony. In Total Mobilization, Roy Scranton cuts through the fog of trauma that obscures World War II, uncovering a lost history and reframing the way we talk about war today.
Considering often overlooked works by James Jones, Wallace Stevens, Martha Gellhorn, and others, alongside cartoons and films, Scranton investigates the role of the hero in industrial wartime, showing how such writers struggled to make sense of problems that continue to plague us today: the limits of American power, the dangers of political polarization, and the conflicts between nationalism and liberalism. By turning our attention to the ways we make war meaningful--and by excavating the politics implicit within the myth of the traumatized hero--Total Mobilization revises the way we understand not only World War II, but all of postwar American culture.
Considering often overlooked works by James Jones, Wallace Stevens, Martha Gellhorn, and others, alongside cartoons and films, Scranton investigates the role of the hero in industrial wartime, showing how such writers struggled to make sense of problems that continue to plague us today: the limits of American power, the dangers of political polarization, and the conflicts between nationalism and liberalism. By turning our attention to the ways we make war meaningful--and by excavating the politics implicit within the myth of the traumatized hero--Total Mobilization revises the way we understand not only World War II, but all of postwar American culture.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-226-63728-0 (9780226637280)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
07/2019
1st Edition
University of Chicago Press
from
€25.20
Available for download
Person
Roy Scranton is assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of Civilization, We're Doomed. Now What? Essays on War and Climate Change, and two novels, War Porn and I Heart Oklahoma!