LEADER 03899nam 2200685 450 001 9910786763203321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-8014-7120-6 010 $a1-322-52303-7 010 $a0-8014-7121-4 024 7 $a10.7591/9780801471216 035 $a(CKB)3710000000216375 035 $a(OCoLC)889302457 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10904415 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001290651 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11705757 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001290651 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11244123 035 $a(PQKB)10540773 035 $a(OCoLC)966771344 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse51940 035 $a(DE-B1597)478335 035 $a(OCoLC)979579879 035 $a(OCoLC)994504144 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780801471216 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3138623 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10904415 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL683585 035 $a(OCoLC)922998682 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3138623 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000216375 100 $a20140815h20072007 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe embattled self $eFrench soldiers' testimony of the Great War /$fLeonard V. Smith 210 1$aIthaca, New York :$cCornell University Press,$d2007. 210 4$dİ2007 215 $a1 online resource (229 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8014-4523-X 311 $a0-8014-7956-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tPreface --$tIntroduction: Experience, Narrative, and Narrator in the Great War --$t1. Rites of Passage and the Initiation to Combat --$t2. The Mastery of Survival: Death, Mutilation, and Killing --$t3. The Genre of Consent --$t4. The Novel and the Search for Closure --$tConclusion --$tBibliography --$tIndex 330 $aHow did the soldiers in the trenches of the Great War understand and explain battlefield experience, and themselves through that experience? Situated at the intersection of military history and cultural history, The Embattled Self draws on the testimony of French combatants to explore how combatants came to terms with the war. In order to do so, they used a variety of narrative tools at hand-rites of passage, mastery, a character of the soldier as a consenting citizen of the Republic. None of the resulting versions of the story provided a completely consistent narrative, and all raised more questions about the "truth" of experience than they answered. Eventually, a story revolving around tragedy and the soldier as victim came to dominate-even to silence-other types of accounts. In thematic chapters, Leonard V. Smith explains why the novel structured by a specific notion of trauma prevailed by the 1930's. Smith canvasses the vast literature of nonfictional and fictional testimony from French soldiers to understand how and why the "embattled self" changed over time. In the process, he undermines the conventional understanding of the war as tragedy and its soldiers as victims, a view that has dominated both scholarly and popular opinion since the interwar period. The book is important reading not only for traditional historians of warfare but also for scholars in a variety of fields who think critically about trauma and the use of personal testimony in literary and historical studies. 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$vPersonal narratives, French 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$xLiterature and the war 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918$xLiterature and the war. 676 $a940.4092/244 700 $aSmith$b Leonard V.$f1957-$0792121 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910786763203321 996 $aThe embattled self$93806730 997 $aUNINA