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E-book
Author Smith, Leonard V., 1957- author.

Title The embattled self : French soldiers' testimony of the Great War / Leonard V. Smith
Published Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 2007
©2007

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Description 1 online resource (229 pages)
Contents Rites of passage and the initiation to combat -- The mastery of survival : death, mutilation, and killing -- The genre of consent -- The novel and the search for closure
Summary How did the soldiers in the trenches of the Great War understand and explain battlefield experience, and themselves through that experience? Situated at the intersection of military history and cultural history, The embattled self draws on the testimony of French combatants to explore how combatants came to terms with the war. In order to do so, they used a variety of narrative tools at hand-- rites of passage, mastery, a character of the soldier as a consenting citizen of the Republic. None of the resulting versions of the story provided a completely consistent narrative, and all raised more questions about the "truth" of experience than they answered. In thematic chapters, Smith explains why the novel structured by a specific notion of trauma prevailed by the 1930s and undermines the conventional understanding of the war as tragedy and its soldiers as victims, a view that has dominated both scholarly and popular opinion since the interwar period
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, French
World War, 1914-1918 -- Literature and the war
HISTORY -- Europe -- Western.
HISTORY -- Europe -- France.
War and literature
Französisch
Kriegsroman
Soldat
Weltkrieg 1914-1918
Erster Weltkrieg Motiv
Eerste Wereldoorlog.
Soldaten.
Literatuur (fictie en non-fictie)
Oorlogsromans.
Första världskriget 1914-1918 i litteraturen.
Första världskriget 1914-1918 -- franska personliga berättelser.
Frankreich
Frankrijk.
Französisch.
Genre/Form Personal narratives
Personal narratives
Personal narratives.
Récits personnels.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780801471216
0801471214
0801471206
9780801471209
1322523037
9781322523033