Ceremonial Storytelling
Subtitle: Ritual and Narrative in Post-9/11 US Wars
Publisher: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers
Published: 2019
Place of publication: Bern
Number of pages: 332
Subjects: History of the Americas; Military history; Military veterans; Digital lifestyle; Cultural studies; Media studies; Archaeology; Literary studies: from c 1900 -
Description: US society has controversially debated civil-military relationships and war trauma since the Vietnam War. Civic activists today promote Indigenous warrior traditions as role models for non-Native veteran reintegration and health care. They particularly stress the role of ritual and narrative for civil-military negotiations of war experience and for trauma therapy. Applying a cultural-comparative lens, this book reads non-Native soldiers’ and veterans’ life writing from post-9/11 wars as «ceremonial storytelling.» It analyzes activist academic texts, «milblogs» written in the war zone, as well as «homecoming scenarios.» Soldiers’ and veterans’ interactions with civilians constitute jointly constructed, narrative civic rituals that discuss the meaning of war experience and homecoming.
Notes: Open Access Unrestricted online access

Creative Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

English