War experience and trauma in American literature
Subtitle: a study of American military memoirs of Operation Iraqi Freedom
By: Lena-Simone Günther
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Peter Lang
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Frankfurt am Main; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9783631655115
Subjects: Soldiers' writings, American; Iraq War, 2003-2011; American Personal narratives; Literature and the war; War; Psychological aspects; Psychic trauma in literature; Military ethics; War and society
Other titles: American military memoirs of Operation Iraqi Freedom; Military memoirs of Operation Iraqi Freedom; Operation Iraqi Freedom
Description: "Walt Whitman wrote: ¿The real war will never get into the books." To this day, however, American soldier-authors write about their war and translate traumatic experiences into language accessible to the reader. Veterans of the recent Iraq war do not differ here. Joining the post-draft American military, the selected soldier-authors are thrust into a conflict which soon exceeded governmental, military and public expectations. Focusing on core elements which link the selected military memoirs of Nathaniel Fick, Colby Buzzell, Clint Van Winkle, John Crawford and Matt Gallagher together, this book follows the soldier-authors' process of soldierization, their loss of innocence, moral responsibility and, finally, coping mechanisms for traumatic experiences sustained in combat" --
Notes: Focuses on military memoirs: One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer (2005) by Nathaniel Fick, The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq (2005) by John Crawford, My War: Killing Time in Iraq (2006) by Colby Buzzell, Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (2009) by Clint van Winkle and Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War (2010) by Matt Gallagher

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction. Into the crosshairs; Not done yet - the individual's narrative of war; title: Literature and war. The "I" in war; Creating meaning out of war?;  "Innocence" and "responsibility" in war, abstract concepts in need of definition; The soldier's transformation in the literature of war; Résumé; title: Be all you can be - and more.  The civil-military gap;  Yellow footprints, the path to military service; Into the sounds of chaos; Strength in knowledge;  Be all you can be, and more; Résumé; title: Hurry up and wait. Responding quickly and decisively; Military memoirs and heightened vitality; Rehearsing for war; Résumé; title: "Experiencing" Operation Iraqi Freedom. Operation Iraqi Freedom, the soldier-author, and "moral responsibility"; Free will and control in the military memoirs of Operation Iraqi Freedom; Being engaged and aware; Résumé; title: Welcome to my homecoming. Re-entering civilian life; Scripted by war; Résumé; title: Conclusion.