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1 results

  • Chapter 4 - Bodies, Injury, Medicine

  • from Part I - Aspects of War in American Literature
  • Edited by Jennifer Haytock, State University College, Brockport, New York
  • Book:
    War and American Literature
    Published online:
    20 January 2021
    Print publication:
    04 February 2021, pp 57-70

  • Summary

    Hervey Allen abruptly ended his World War I memoir Toward the Flame in the middle of a battle because, as he later wrote, he believed that “When the fighting ends the story stops.” Yet many writers have chosen another route, following wounded soldiers through the grueling and sometimes traumatic process of medical care. Other writers approach war writing through medicine, treating medical professionals as essential to the war effort and thus subjects for a war story. Indeed, medical care often advances greatly during war, creating the irony that destruction of bodies can lead to innovations that save future lives. This essay discusses representations of injured bodies and medical care from the Civil War through the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.