Friendly Fire : American Images of the Vietnam War
American Images of the Vietnam War
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American
| Author: | Katherine Kinney | ISBN: | 9780199881659 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, USA | Publication: | October 9, 2000 |
| Imprint: | Oxford University Press, USA | Language: | English |
| Author: | Katherine Kinney |
| ISBN: | 9780199881659 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, USA |
| Publication: | October 9, 2000 |
| Imprint: | Oxford University Press, USA |
| Language: | English |
Hundreds of memoirs novels plays and movies have been devoted to the American war in Vietnam. In spite of the great variety of media political perspectives and the degrees of seriousness with which the war has been treated Katherine Kinney argues that the vast majority of these works share a single story: that of Americans killing Americans in Vietnam. Friendly Fire in this instance refers not merely to a tragic error of war it also refers to America's war with itself during the Vietnam years. Starting from this point this book considers the concept of "friendly fire" from multiple vantage points and portrays the Vietnam age as a crucible where America's cohesive image of itself is shattered--pitting soldiers against superiors doves against hawks feminism against patriarchy racial fear against racial tolerance. Through the use of extensive evidence from the film and popular fiction of Vietnam (e.g. Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July Didion's Democracy O'Brien's Going After Cacciato Rabe's Sticks and Bones and Streamers) Kinney draws a powerful picture of a nation politically culturally and socially divided and a war that has been memorialized as a contested site of art media politics and ideology.
Hundreds of memoirs novels plays and movies have been devoted to the American war in Vietnam. In spite of the great variety of media political perspectives and the degrees of seriousness with which the war has been treated Katherine Kinney argues that the vast majority of these works share a single story: that of Americans killing Americans in Vietnam. Friendly Fire in this instance refers not merely to a tragic error of war it also refers to America's war with itself during the Vietnam years. Starting from this point this book considers the concept of "friendly fire" from multiple vantage points and portrays the Vietnam age as a crucible where America's cohesive image of itself is shattered--pitting soldiers against superiors doves against hawks feminism against patriarchy racial fear against racial tolerance. Through the use of extensive evidence from the film and popular fiction of Vietnam (e.g. Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July Didion's Democracy O'Brien's Going After Cacciato Rabe's Sticks and Bones and Streamers) Kinney draws a powerful picture of a nation politically culturally and socially divided and a war that has been memorialized as a contested site of art media politics and ideology.
