Feminist Criticism and the Literature of the Vietnam Combat Veteran

Vietnam Generation, Dec 1989

Examining Vietnam War literature through the lens of feminist and gender theories.

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Feminist Criticism and the Literature of the Vietnam Combat Veteran

Feminist Criticism and the Literature of the Vietnam Combat Veteran Number 0 Gender 0 the War: Men 0 Women 0 0 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vietnam Generation by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information , please contact FEMilNiST CRiTiciSM ANd lliE LITERATURE of ThE VIETNAM CoiVlbAT VETERAN K aIi TaL For years I have been both a student of feminist critical theory, and a reader of Vietnam War literature by com bat veterans. The two p u rsu its seem to have little in common, and, although I believe th a t I always read a s a feminist, I could not connect my interest in Vietnam War literature to my interest in feminist criticism. Infact, I often puzzled over my seemingly paradoxical fascination with the m alest of male literature; I am rarely attracted to other fictions by white m en, b u t there was always something about literature by veterans th a t captured my interest and imagination. The first clue to the mystery appeared when I began to read critical interpretations of Vietnam War literature, and to use th e tools of feminist theory to u n d erstand the strengths and w eaknesses of those interpretations. Critical preoccupation with “reality” was immediately apparent: reviews and articles and major critcal studies often stressed the “gritty realism ”, “authenticity,” and “power” of these books; their ability to portray “Nam—the way it really w as.”1 There seemed to be a symbiotic relationship between au th o r and reviewer (man-to-man) which was predicated on the reviewer’s acceptance of the a u th o r’s objectivity or “knowledge”. The only way the reviewer could know w hether the au th o r’s tale was authentic was if the reviewer had, even vicariously, experienced war. By confirming the “tru th ” of the tale, the reviewer places him self in the club of m en who have survived war. The few women who review Vietnam War literature are placed in an awkward position. They can choose to work within the framework generated by writers an d the male reviewing establishm ent; however, they are, by gender, excluded from the club though they may speak admiringly of “realistic characters,”“gruesome descriptions ofcombat, moving dialogue, and...effective recounting of the tension and th e moral dilemm as of facing m en in com bat.”2 An alternative to working within the m asculine framework has been generated by some feminist scholars, among them J e a n Elshtain, whose Women and War contains a striking analysis of the audience for Vietnam narratives, and in which she suggests th a t “the Vietnam vets’ struggle for self definition emerges as a form of individual and collective therapy, a public and private discourse.”3 Also working outside the traditional critical framework is Jacqueline Lawson, whose paper, “She’s a Pretty Woman...for a Gook: The Misogyny of the Vietnam War”4offered a radical critique ofmilitary and social attitudes toward women. But, for the most part, feminist scholars do not seem interested in working with Vietnam War literature. This may be due, in part, to the fact that few genres apart from violent pornography offer such negative images of women.5It may also result from their belief that work with Vietnam War literature does not offer any great opportunities to further develop thencritical techniques and strategies. Iwould, however, like to make a case for intensive feminist study of Vietnam War literature based on the assumption that its primary interest is as literature of trauma. An author has a special psychological involvement in the creation of a narrative bom out of traumatic experience. This involvement has been well documented in studies such as Eric Leed s No Man’s Land: Combat and Identity in World War 1, Paul Fussell’s The Great War arid Moden Memory, Gerald Lindeman’s Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War, Arthur Egendorfs Healingfrom the War (Vietnam), Robert J. Lifton’s Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, and Victor Frankl’s From Death Camp to Existentialism.6 Each of these works points to the intimale relation between the traumatic experience and the symbols generated by that experience. An understanding of the psychological effects of trauma can serve as a tool for interpreting literature by combat veterans. Recent analyses have incorporated many of the issues discussed in the psychiatric literature describing PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association formally acknowledged the existence of the disorder by including it in the new edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual o f Mental Disorders III. According to the APA, PTSD is a series of symptoms which follows a trauma “generally outside the range of usual human experience”.7 The characteristic symptoms include autonomic arousal, which is often manifest in panic attacks or startle reactions; a (...truncated)


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Kali Tal. Feminist Criticism and the Literature of the Vietnam Combat Veteran, Vietnam Generation, 1989, pp. 16, Volume 1, Issue 3,