Gendering War Talk (Princeton Legacy Library) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691069808 ISBN 13: 9780691069807

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1993

Synopsis

In a century torn by violent civil uprisings, civilian bombings, and genocides, war has been an immediate experience for both soldiers and civilians, for both women and men. But has this reality changed our long-held images of the roles women and men play in war, or the emotions we attach to violence, or what we think war can accomplish? This provocative collection addresses such questions in exploring male and female experiences of war--from World War I, to Vietnam, to wars in Latin America and the Middle East--and how this experience has been articulated in literature, film and drama, history, psychology, and philosophy. Together these essays reveal a myth of war that has been upheld throughout history and that depends on the exclusion of "the feminine" in order to survive.

The discussions reconsider various existing gender images: Do women really tend to be either pacifists or Patriotic Mothers? Are men essentially aggressive or are they threatened by their lack of aggression? Essays explore how cultural conceptions of gender as well as discursive and iconographic representation reshape the experience and meaning of war. The volume shows war as a terrain in which gender is negotiated. As to whether war produces change for women, some contributors contend that the fluidity of war allows for linguistic and social renegotiations; others find no lasting, positive changes. In an interpretive essay Klaus Theweleit suggests that the only good war is the lost war that is embraced as a lost war.

Originally published in 1993.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

About this title

About the Author

Angela Woollacott is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Women's Studies Program at Case Western Reserve University. She is the co-editor of "Gendering War Talk" (1993).

From Publishers Weekly

These 13 essays, which grew out of a 1990 institute on war and gender at Dartmouth College, range across cultures and disciplines to explore how 20th-century war stories articulate both men's and women's experiences. Some are quite accessible, such as Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer's analysis of Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah, which, in concentrating on testimony from men, refuses to recognize gender differences in the experiences of victims. Some essays address obscure topics, like Diana Taylor's criticism of an Argentine play that concerns the country's "dirty war," or are bogged down in lit-crit language, like Lynda E. Boose's take on "techno-muscular" cinematic representations of war and masculinity. Perhaps most interesting is Carol Cohn's ironic report on how male defense intellectuals talk about war--urging caution in an international crisis, for instance, is called "wimping out." Also notable is Irene Matthews's analysis of the stories told by daughters about their mothers in Mexico and Guatemala, which includes one by Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchu. Cooke is the author of War's Other Voices ; Woollacott teaches history at Case Western Reserve University.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691069808
• ISBN 13: 9780691069807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Cooke Miriam, Woollacott Angela