Ceremonial Storytelling : : Ritual and Narrative in Post-9/11 US wars / / Frank Usbeck.

• VerfasserIn: Usbeck, Frank,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin, Germany : : Peter Lang International Academic Publishers,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (331 pages)

US society has controversially debated civil-military relationships and war trauma since the Vietnam War. Civic activists today promote Indigenous warrior traditions as role models for non-Native veteran reintegration and health care. They particularly stress the role of ritual and narrative for civil-military negotiations of war experience and for trauma therapy. Applying a cultural-comparative lens, this book reads non-Native soldiers? and veterans? life writing from post-9/11 wars as 'ceremonial storytelling.' It analyzes activist academic texts, 'milblogs' written in the war zone, as well as 'homecoming scenarios.' Soldiers? and veterans? interactions with civilians constitute jointly constructed, narrative civic rituals that discuss the meaning of war experience and homecoming.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Narrating war: activist discourse and cultural comparison -- Milblogs as rituals: war, citizenship, and the sacred -- Beyond the call of duty: war experience, relationship-building and community service -- Singing their â¿¿songâ¿yen: veterans, civilians, and the trials of homecoming -- Conclusion.