This book explores the construction of alterity, heroism, and the representation of violence in narratives of American captivity during the Gulf Wars, highlighting their ideological function. It also discusses the texts' intertextual quality and their role in identity formation, justifying military aggression, and promoting stereotypes.
The book explores a newly compiled corpus of American Gulf War captivity narratives, their claim to truth and their construction of identity and ideology, as well as concepts of heroism and anti-heroism. Moreover, it probes the texts' complex authorship, uncovers their role in promoting cultural stereotypes and in propagating violence. Hence, this study is deeply involved with uncovering narrative strategies of othering and with the construction of orientalist alterities. The findings are then connected to broader social debates in the USA. Unpacking themes of alterity, heroism, and violence, the research underscores the Gulf War captivity narratives' role in justifying aggression and in shaping U.S. American national identity, underscoring the need for continued scrutiny.
Captivity - Prisoners of War - Gulf Wars - American captivity narratives - alterity - heroism - violence - ideology - national identities - stereotypes - gender and violence - intertextuality - discourse analysis - narrative identity - factual narration - gender - rhetorics and identity construction - propaganda - Iraq war
Annika Wirth holds a Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg. She is trained in English and American Studies and has a special interest in narrative identity construction, ideologies, and theories of deconstruction.
