1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910450416403321

Autore

Limon John

Titolo

Writing after war : American war fiction from realism to postmodernism / / John Limon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, New York ; ; Oxford, [England] : , : Oxford University Press, , 1994

©1994

ISBN

1-280-44289-1

1-4237-3860-8

0-19-535859-7

1-60129-967-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (266 p.)

Disciplina

813.009/358

Soggetti

War stories, American - History and criticism

American fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

American fiction - 20th century - History and criticism

Postmodernism (Literature) - United States

Realism in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Introduction; 1. The Art of War: The Contest and the Duel; 2. Swords to Words: Realism and the Civil War; 3. Goddesses on the Battlefield: The Combatant Novels of Tourgée, Cable, and De Forest; 4. Temporal Form and Wartime: Modernism After World War I; 5. The Postmodernization of World War II; 6. Diversions: A Theory of the Vietnam Sports Novel; 7. Family Likenesses: War in Women's Words; Afterword; Notes; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In Writing After War, John Limon develops a theory of the relationship of war in general to literature in general, in order to make sense of American literary history in particular. Applying the work of war theorists Carl von Clausewitz and Elaine Scarry, John Limon argues that The Iliad inaugurates Western literature on the failure of war to be duel-like, to have a beautiful form. War's failure is literature's



justification. American literary history is demarcated by wars, as if literary epochs, like the history of literature itself, required bloodshed to commence. But in chapters on periods