Fighting Fictions: War, Narrative and National Identity

Asserting that societys ideals of nationhood, race, gender, and class are mainly to blame for the apprehension and experience of war, this book applies theories of contemporary cultural studies to the analysis of war. In order to draw the lines clearly between fiction, myth and ideology in the construction and deconstruction of war, the author offers an analysis of a broad range of war fictions -- popular fiction, journals, memoirs, contemporary press coverage, histories and official government reports, as well as photographic, graphic and cinematic treatments -- drawn from or reflecting on the conflicts in Vietnam, the two world wars, the Spanish Civil War and the conflicts in the Gulf and the Falklands.