Men at war : what fiction tells us about conflict, from the Iliad to Catch-22 / Christopher Coker.

By:

Coker, Christopher [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 2014Description: 1 online resource (ix, 325 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780190237882
0190237880

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Men at warDDC classification:

809/.93358 23

LOC classification:

PN56.W3 C64 2014eb

Other classification:

LIT007000 | SOC018000

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

An absolute truth -- Warriors. Achilles ; Aeneas ; Hadji Murat ; "Lucky Jack" Aubrey ; Vollmer. -- Heroes. Henry Fleming ; Brigadier Gerard ; Bourne ; Robert Jordan ; Malaparte. -- Villains. Colonel Feraud ; Colonel Moredock ; General Cummings ; Dr. Strangelove ; Judge Holden. -- Survivors. Falstaff ; Svejk ; Yossarian ; Kien ; Flashman. -- Victims. Philoctetes ; Colonel Chabert ; Paul Baumer ; Guy Crouchback ; Billy Pilgrim. -- War is kind: a final summing up.

Summary: "Since Achilles first stormed into our imagination, literature has introduced its readers to truly unforgettable martial characters. In Men at War, Christopher Coker discusses some of the most famous of these fictional creations and their impact on our understanding of war and masculinity. Grouped into five archetypes-warriors, heroes, villains, survivors and victims-these characters range across 3000 years of history, through epic poems, the modern novel and one of the twentieth century's most famous film scripts. Great authors like Homer and Tolstoy show us aspects of reality invisible except through a literary lens, while fictional characters such as Achilles and Falstaff, Robert Jordan and Jack Aubrey, are not just larger than life; they are life's largeness-and this is why we seek them out. Although the Greeks knew that the lovers, wives and mothers of soldiers are the chief victims of battle, for the combatants, war is a masculine pursuit. Each of Coker's chapters explores what fiction tells us about war's appeal to young men and the way it makes- and breaks-them. The existential appeal of war too is perhaps best conveyed in fictional accounts, and these too are scrutinized by the author"-- Provided by publisher.

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"Since Achilles first stormed into our imagination, literature has introduced its readers to truly unforgettable martial characters. In Men at War, Christopher Coker discusses some of the most famous of these fictional creations and their impact on our understanding of war and masculinity. Grouped into five archetypes-warriors, heroes, villains, survivors and victims-these characters range across 3000 years of history, through epic poems, the modern novel and one of the twentieth century's most famous film scripts. Great authors like Homer and Tolstoy show us aspects of reality invisible except through a literary lens, while fictional characters such as Achilles and Falstaff, Robert Jordan and Jack Aubrey, are not just larger than life; they are life's largeness-and this is why we seek them out. Although the Greeks knew that the lovers, wives and mothers of soldiers are the chief victims of battle, for the combatants, war is a masculine pursuit. Each of Coker's chapters explores what fiction tells us about war's appeal to young men and the way it makes- and breaks-them. The existential appeal of war too is perhaps best conveyed in fictional accounts, and these too are scrutinized by the author"-- Provided by publisher.