War and Literature: Commiserating with the Enemy

147 Pages·2020·1.975 MB·English

by  Rachel McCoppin (editor)

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War and Literature
Commiserating with the Enemy
Edited by
Rachel McCoppin
Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Humanities
www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities
War and Literature

War and Literature: Commiserating
with the Enemy
SpecialIssueEditor
RachelMcCoppin
MDPI•Basel•Beijing•Wuhan•Barcelona•Belgrade
SpecialIssueEditor
RachelMcCoppin
UniversityofMinnesotaCrookston
USA
EditorialOffice
MDPI
St.Alban-Anlage66
4052Basel,Switzerland
This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal
Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787) from 2018 to 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/
humanities/specialissues/warliterature)
Forcitationpurposes,citeeacharticleindependentlyasindicatedonthearticlepageonlineandas
indicatedbelow:
LastName,A.A.; LastName,B.B.; LastName,C.C.ArticleTitle. JournalNameYear,ArticleNumber,
PageRange.
ISBN978-3-03921-910-0(Pbk)
ISBN978-3-03921-911-7(PDF)
(cid:2)c 2019bytheauthors. ArticlesinthisbookareOpenAccessanddistributedundertheCreative
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Contents
AbouttheSpecialIssueEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Prefaceto”WarandLiterature:CommiseratingwiththeEnemy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
KarolZielin´ski
WomenasVictimsofWarinHomer’sOralPoetics
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,141,doi:10.3390/h8030141 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
BhushanAryal
The Rhetoric of Krishna versus the Counter-Rhetoric of Vyas: The Place of Commiseration
intheMahabharat
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,154,doi:10.3390/h8040154 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
YousefDeikna
LucyHutchinsonandMargaretCavendish:CivilWarandEnemyCommiseration
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,43,doi:10.3390/h8010043 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
DanielleJohannesen
DepictionsofAmericanIndiansinGeorgeArmstrongCuster’sMyLifeonthePlains
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,56,doi:10.3390/h8010056 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
DavidPoynor
MeetingtheEnemyinWorldWarIPoetry:CognitiveDissonanceasaVehicleforTheme
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,30,doi:10.3390/h8010030 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
MichaelSarnowski
EnemyEncountersintheWarPoetryofWilfredOwen,KeithDouglas,andRandallJarrell
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2018,7,89,doi:10.3390/h7030089 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
DarioMarcucci
Enemy and Officers in Emilio Lussu’s
Unannosull’Altipiano
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,26,doi:10.3390/h8010026 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
AllisonHaas
Two1916s:SebastianBarry’sALongLongWay
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,60,doi:10.3390/h8010060 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
RobertT.TallyJr.
DemonizingtheEnemy,Literally:Tolkien,Orcs,andtheSenseoftheWorldWars
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,54,doi:10.3390/h8010054 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
DavidBeard
HowCanYouNotShout,NowThattheWhisperingIsDone? AccountsoftheEnemyinUS,
Hmong,andVietnameseSoldiers’LiteraryReflectionsontheWar
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,172,doi:10.3390/h8040172 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
StephanieCallan
TheMakingofaTerrorist:ImaginingCombatants’PointsofViewinTroublesLiterature
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,27,doi:10.3390/h8010027 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
v
StevenK.Johnson
Translating the Enemy in the ‘Terp’: Three Representations in Contemporary Afghan
WarFiction
Reprintedfrom:Humanities2019,8,63,doi:10.3390/h8020063 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
vi

Preface to ”War and Literature: Commiserating with
the Enemy”
Thetopicofwarandliteraturehasreceivedmuchcriticalattention;however,thisSpecialIssue
focusesspecificallyonliterarytextsthatdiscussthetopicofcommiserationwiththe“enemy”within
warliterature. ThearticlesincludedinthisSpecialIssueshowauthorsand/orliterarycharacters
attemptingtounderstandthemotives,beliefs,culturalvalues,etc. ofthosewhohavebeendefined
by their nations as their enemies. This process of attempting to understand the orientation of
defined “enemies” often shows that the soldier has begun a process of reflection about why he
orsheispartofthewarexperience. Thetextsincludedinthisissuearearrangedchronologically
bytheirconnectiontoaparticularwar. Thetwoarticles: “WomenasVictimsofWarinHomer’s
Oral Poetics” by Karol Zielin´ski and “The Rhetoric of Krishna versus the Counter-Rhetoric of
Vyas: ThePlaceofCommiserationintheMahabharat”byBhushanAryalshowtheexistenceofthe
themeofcommiserationforone’sproposedenemyevenwithinancienttexts. BothYousefDeikna’s
“LucyHutchinsonandMargaretCavendish: CivilWarandEnemyCommiseration”andDanielle
Johannesen’s“DepictionsofAmericanIndiansinGeorgeArmstrongCuster’sMyLifeonthePlains”
depict the issue of the topic within works of the Civil War era within America. Within the war
poetryproducedduringWorldWarI,againthetopicofcontemplationandthencommiserationfor
thosewhohavebeenidentifiedastheenemyisanalyzedinDavidPoynor’s“MeetingtheEnemyin
WorldWarIPoetry:CognitiveDissonanceasaVehicleforTheme”andMichaelSarnowski’s“Enemy
EncountersintheWarPoetryofWilfredOwen,KeithDouglas,andRandallJarrell.”DarioMarcucci’s
article“EnemyandOfficersinEmilioLussu’sUnannosull’Altipiano”alsoaddressestheissuetopic
fromtheperspectiveoftheAlpineFrontwithinWorldWarI.AllisonHaas’“Two1916s: Sebastian
Barry’sALongLongWay”focusesonbothWorldWarIandthe1916EasterRisinginIrelandby
examiningSebastianBarry’s2005novel,ALongLongWay. Thethemeofcommiserationforone’s
enemyisalsoshowntobeapartofWorldWarIIliterature,asdiscussedinthearticle“Demonizing
theEnemy, Literally: Tolkien, Orcs, andtheSenseoftheWorldWars”byRobertT.Tally, Jr.; itis
alsofoundintheliteratureoftheVietnamWar,asdiscussedbyDavidBeardin“HowCanYouNot
Shout,NowThattheWhisperingIsDone? AccountsoftheEnemyinUS,Hmong,andVietnamese
Soldiers’ Literary Reflections on the War.” Additionally, Stephanie Callan’s “The Making of a
Terrorist:ImaginingCombatants’PointsofViewinTroublesLiterature”furthershowstheexistence
oftheissuewithintheliteratureaddressingtheconflictbetweenProtestantloyalistsandCatholic
nationalistsduringtheTroubles(1968–1998)erawithinIreland.Finally,theissueisalsopresentedin
StevenK.Johnson’s“TranslatingtheEnemyinthe‘Terp’: ThreeRepresentationsinContemporary
AfghanWarFiction,”showingthattheconceptofcommiserationforone’senemyisstillapparent
in contemporary war literature. By analyzing literature from ancient to contemporary times, the
articles within this collection show that when an author and/or literary character reflects against
state-supported definitions of good/evil, right/wrong, and ally/enemy, the texts then present
audiencesanopportunitytoreevaluateboththepurposesofwarandone’smoralresponsibility
ix
duringwartime. Asthethreatofwarisaconsistentrealityinourcontemporaryera,itisimportant
toacknowledgetheliterarytextsthatreflectuponthepoliticalmanipulationofbeliefduringwartime
andhowitmaycauseonetoembraceintolerancetowardsothersbymaintainingtheirdesignationas
theenemy.
RachelMcCoppin
SpecialIssueEditor
x