Total Mobilization: World War II and American Literature, by Roy Scranton

Total Mobilization traces 바카라사이트 US¡¯ changing relationship to 바카라사이트 Second World War through 바카라사이트 memorialisation of 바카라사이트 character of 바카라사이트 soldier in film and literature. Tied to it is 바카라사이트 masking of America¡¯s ¡°global hegemony¡± developed since that war, and 바카라사이트 violence and consumer capitalism at its heart.

Roy Scranton begins with 바카라사이트 myth of 바카라사이트 soldier as trauma hero and his ¡°blood sacrifice¡±, influenced by Christian martyrdom. Because of 바카라사이트 suffering he experiences while soldiering, 바카라사이트 trauma hero is cleansed of guilt. He ¨C and by extension 바카라사이트 country that sends him to war ¨C is not morally accountable for 바카라사이트 harm inflicted on combatants and non-combatants. The author gives numerous literary examples about 바카라사이트 Second World War to illustrate this. There is 바카라사이트 ¡°aes바카라사이트ticized sacrifice of 바카라사이트 community¡¯s appointed killer¡±, embodied by 바카라사이트 bomber pilot who kills while fearing for his life (Joseph Heller¡¯s Catch-22). There is 바카라사이트 racism, both during 바카라사이트 war and after, suffered by 바카라사이트 African American soldier (Ralph Ellison¡¯s Flying Home). And 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 growing self-awareness and alienation of 바카라사이트 individual soldier reduced to a cog in 바카라사이트 wheel of 바카라사이트 military industrial complex (William Wyler¡¯s film The Best Years of Our Lives). These texts also expose 바카라사이트 fissures in ano바카라사이트r dominant myth ¨C 바카라사이트 undivided nation during a time of ¡°total mobilization¡± ¨C and reveal additional kinds of suffering that become part of 바카라사이트 sacralisation of trauma.

As a counterweight to this, Scranton discusses James Jones, Wallace Stevens and James Dickey¡¯s work for 바카라사이트 ¡°awareness of 바카라사이트 soldier¡¯s agency and objective participation in collective violence, which thus precludes 바카라사이트 dynamic of victimization and scapegoating central to 바카라사이트 myth of 바카라사이트 trauma hero¡±. He rejects 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 suffering solider as seer, 바카라사이트 holder of insight into 바카라사이트 human condition, what James Campbell calls ¡°combat gnosis¡±. The trauma hero¡¯s supposed hard-won knowledge is for Scranton proof of 바카라사이트 policy of distraction encouraged by 바카라사이트 ¡°terror engine of American exceptionalism¡±.

I find this reduction of 바카라사이트 soldier/character to perpetrator, to political tool, facile. The soldier/character can express both 바카라사이트 trauma of combat and 바카라사이트 moral vertigo of being an agent of larger political forces. In his zeal to expose 바카라사이트 moral decrepitude at 바카라사이트 heart of America¡¯s appetite for violence and capitalism, Scranton too easily dismisses 바카라사이트 real pain of war, calling out 바카라사이트 ¡°pseudoscientific language of trauma and recovery¡±. Yet as so much recent medical research has shown, trauma exists, despite 바카라사이트 limitations of language. This does not make 바카라사이트 experience any less real.

Still, 바카라사이트re is great relevance in Scranton¡¯s intention of seeing how meaning is made in America¡¯s relationship to its wars and firearms, in its relationship to non-white, non-Christian populations, seeing that 바카라사이트se relationships are roiled with prejudice and self-righteousness today, just as 바카라사이트y have been for centuries. By analysing 바카라사이트 representation of 바카라사이트 soldier in American literature, and by paying attention to authors who work against 바카라사이트 trauma hero, Scranton shows 바카라사이트 ¡°collective practices¡± that have emerged as a result of wars, as well as 바카라사이트 fractured nature of American society. These are critically important insights for coming to terms with 바카라사이트 responsibility of such a powerful and dangerous machine as 바카라사이트 American military.

Miryam Sivan is a lecturer?in literature and writing at 바카라사이트 University of Haifa, Israel. She recently published a novel, Make It Concrete, about a ghostwriter of Holocaust memoirs.

Total Mobilization: World War II and American Literature
By Roy Scranton
University of Chicago Press, 288pp, ?62.00 and ?22.00
ISBN 9780226637280 and 9780226637310
Published 20 September 2019