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Rotten Symbol Mongering: Scapegoating in Post-9/11 American War Literature

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Rotten Symbol Mongering: Scapegoating in Post-9/11 American War Literature University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2015 Rotten Symbol Mongering: Scapegoating in Post-9/11 American War Literature David Andrew Buchanan University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Buchanan, David Andrew, "Rotten Symbol Mongering: Scapegoating in Post-9/11 American War Literature" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1014. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1014 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. ROTTEN SYMBOL MONGERING: SCAPEGOATING IN POST-9/11 AMERICAN WAR LITERATURE __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by David A. Buchanan August 2015 Advisor: Dr. Billy J. Stratton ©Copyright by David A. Buchanan 2015 All Rights Reserved Author: David A. Buchanan Title: ROTTEN SYMBOL MONGERING: SCAPEGOATING IN POST-9/11 AMERICAN WAR LITERATURE Advisor: Dr. Billy J. Stratton Degree Date: August 2015 Abstract A rhetorical approach to the fiction of war offers an appropriate vehicle by which one may encounter and interrogate such literature and the cultural metanarratives that exist therein. My project is a critical analysis—one that relies heavily upon Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic method and his concepts of scapegoating, the comic corrective, and hierarchical psychosis—of three war novels published in 2012 (The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, FOBBIT by David Abrams, and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain). This analysis assumes a rhetorical screen in order to subvert and redirect the grand narratives the United States perpetuates in art form whenever it goes to war. Kenneth Burke’s concept of ad bellum purificandum (the purification of war) sought to bridge the gap between war experience and the discourse that it creates in both art and criticism. My work extends that project. I examine the symbolic incongruity of convenient symbols that migrate from war to war (“Geronimo” was used as code for Osama bin Laden’s death during the S.E.A.L team raid; “Indian Country” stands for any dangerous land in Iraq; hajji is this generation’s epithet for the enemy other). Such an examination can weaken our cultural “symbol mongering,” to borrow a phrase from Walker Percy. These three books, examined according to Burke’s methodology, exhibit a wide range of approaches to the soldier’s tale. Notably, however, whether they refigure the grand narratives of modern culture or recast the common redemptive war narrative ii into more complex representations, this examination shows how one can grasp, contend, and transcend the metanarrative of the typical, redemptive war story. iii Acknowledgements The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. Thank you to Dr. Billy Stratton, my academic advisor and dissertation director. I came to the University of Denver because of Dr. Stratton, and it proved to be a wonderful decision. Thank you to Dr. Linda Bensel-Meyers, who first introduced me to Kenneth Burke and taught me about commonplace books. Both Dr. Stratton and Dr. Bensel- Meyers have served as wonderful readers throughout this project. Thanks are also in order for Dr. Clark Davis and Dr. Dean Saitta who graciously agreed to serve on my committee. I have learned much during my doctoral studies, and all of the members of my committee are responsible for a huge portion of that. I’ve watched them negotiate academia and the classroom in ways that I hope to emulate someday, and I consider myself fortunate for having worked with all of them. I should also thank my mother, Rita Buchanan, who caught many a misplaced comma in early drafts of this manuscript. And finally, I thank my wife, Dr. Cindy Buchanan, who has, for years, been a patient and supportive partner in this and other endeavors. She has long been the most important influence on my personal and professional lives for a long time, and I owe her everything. She is my biggest fan, my strongest motivator, and my best friend, and I am lucky to have her on my team. iv Table of Contents Introduction: The Resilience of Racist Language, Symbols, and Rhetoric in Post-9/11 War Literature..................................................................................................................... 1 A Note on Terminology........................................................................................ 20 Chapter One: War Literature, its Criticism, and the Fetishization of Experience ............ 23 The Cyclical Pattern of War’s Representation...................................................... 23 The Ideology of Combat Gnosticism and the Genre of War Literature ............... 34 Paul Fussell’s Entrenchment of Combat Gnosticism in Contemporary War Literature............................................................................................................... 41 Paul Fussell’s Disciples and the Resilience of Combat Gnosticism..................... 54 The Anxiety of Authenticity in the Writing of War Literature............................. 65 Packaging Combat Gnosticism............................................................................. 70 Chapter Two: Kenneth Burke’s Scapegoat: a Method for War Literature ....................... 85 Chapter Three: Confounding Expectations and Chasing the Scapegoat in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds............................................................................................................. 109 Kevin Powers’ Philosophy of Form: Packaging the American War Novel........ 115 Managing Appetites and Appeasements in the War Novel ................................ 126 Tracing the Scapegoats’ Demise......................................................................... 138 “Getting Deviant”: the Scapegoating of Sergeant Sterling................................. 152 “Something happened”: the Scapegoating of Daniel Murphy............................ 163 Chapter Four: The Comic Corrective and Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk ................................................................................................................................ 170 Maintaining a Perspective by Incongruity: Fountain’s War on War Porn.......... 175 Preventing a Perspective by Incongruity ............................................................ 189 Caving under the Pressure of Getting it Right.................................................... 201 The Mortification of Billy Lynn ......................................................................... 214 Chapter Five: The Convenient Scapegoat in David Abrams’ FOBBIT.......................... 224 A Good Fobbit Is Hard to Find........................................................................... 238 Fobbits Who Don’t Threaten The Hierarchy Need Not Be Purged.................... 252 Abe Shrinkle and the Hierarchical Embarrassment of Fobbit-ness.................... 257 Shrinkle’s Exile................................................................................................... 273 Chapter Six: Representing Hajji: This Generation’s Enemy “Other” ............................ 285 The Birth of Hajji................................................................................................ 290 Sniping Hajji ....................................................................................................... 296 Dismantling Hajji................................................................................................ 307 Hajji, Identification, Scapegoating ..................................................................... 337 v Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 359 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Donald Rumsfeld at Fort Carson......................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Back jacket of Carnivore .................................................................................. 94 Figure 3: Cover art and back jacket of the first edition of The Yellow Birds ................. 117 Figure 4: A parallel analysis of the scapegoat process ................................................... 151 Figure 5: Example of a Billy Lynn “word cloud” ........................................................... 182 Figure 6: Photo of Destiny’s Child on stage at halftime in 2004.................................... 191 Figure 7: Ben Fountain’s inscription .............................................................................. 209 Figure 8: Cover of Fobbit ............................................................................................... 234 Figure 9: Screen shot of Marine Corporal Joshua Belile................................................ 325 Figure 10: Screen shot of “durka durka Muhammad Jihad” scene in Team America .... 327 Figure 11: ICUHAJI license plate..................................................................................
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