War

by Alex Vernon (editor)

In the words of the volumes' editor, "For most war writers, it is the person who hasn't witnessed war with whom they most desperately want to speak." Edited by Alex Vernon, Associate Professor of English at Hendrix College and author and editor of several volumes of war-related nonfiction and literary criticism, this volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the perennial theme. For readers who are studying it for the first time, four essays survey the critical conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts in the genre. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of critical approaches. Works discussed Henry V, captivity narratives from Colonial America to Vietnam to modern-day Afghanistan, poetry from the Civil War and World War I, Holocaust literature, war journalism, women's writings on war, veterans' memoirs and soldiers' letters home. With sources ranging from the usual suspects (Hemingway, Vonnegut and O'Brien) to writers not as commonly associated with war literature such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Flannery O'Connor, and a host of modern science fiction writers, the volume provides a unique viewpoint on just how deeply the specter of war has imbedded itself in the consciousness and artistic expressions of human beings. Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. Additional Works on War, Bibliography, Contributors, About the Editor, Index.

313 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2012

About the author

From Prairie Village, Kansas, Alex Vernon graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (the only literature major in his class of over a thousand), served in combat as a tank platoon leader in the Persian Gulf War, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The recipient of an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award and a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship, he is the M.E. & Ima Graves Peace Distinguished Professor of English at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.