The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature (Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474413943 ISBN 13: 9781474413947

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2016

Synopsis

In fifty-seven chapters leading academics in the field of twentieth-century war studies examine the major wars of the century as well as other conflicts imagined by English and US writers. These include the Boer War, Spanish Civil War, the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Korean War and the decolonising conflicts in Africa through to the war on terror. Topics covered include: pacifism; refugees; camouflage; the war plane; war and children's literature; war and art; spy thrillers, and many more. Taken together the essays make a deliberate and thought-provoking intervention in the field.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Piette is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Sheffield.
Mark Rawlinson is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Leicester.

From Booklist

Cited in its introduction as “the first reference book to deal comprehensively and incisively with the literary and cultural representations of war in twentieth-century British and US literature and film,” this volume features 57 scholarly essays on the impact of these conflicts, omitting only the ongoing Middle East and Gulf Wars. The essays are divided into five broad sections: “Wars and Their Literatures”; “Bodies, Behavior, Cultures”; “Technology”; “Spaces”; and “Genres.” The first section is by far the lengthiest, taking up half of the volume with its 26 essays. Topics in the volume include the Cold War (“Cold War Films”) and pacifism (“Pacifists and Conscientious Objectors”). Although some of the essays are to be expected (e.g., “Holocaust Film”), other essays are unexpectedly specific: “The Literature of the Falklands/Malvinas War” and “Occasioning Peace: Three Poems of the Anglo-Boer War” among them. There is even an essay on video games: “Play Up and Play the Game! The Narrative of War Games.” Most essays are in the 10-page range, and all are extensively documented with endnotes. In a volume with such a broad range of subjects, the index is a bit of a disappointment. Although it deals with subjects and authors, it fails with specific titles. For example, there is no entry for Catch-22 or Slaughterhouse Five, both of which are dealt with in “The Second World War in American Fiction,” nor is there mention of J. D. Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” which is included in the essay “American Psychiatry, Second World War and Korean War.” Instead, one must look under Heller or Vonnegut—and Salinger is not listed at all. The title (emphasizing “Literature”) does the work no favors—given that the scope includes cinema—but neither does its breathtaking price tag, which is reason enough for this volume to be recommended only for comprehensive collections in public and academic libraries. --Ken Black

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1474413943
• ISBN 13: 9781474413947
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 600
• Editor: Piette Adam, Rawlinson Mark