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Diplomarbeit / Diploma Thesis DIPLOMARBEIT / DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit / Title of the Diploma Thesis “YOUNG YELLOW BLOOD BIRDS Invisible Wounds of War, Guilt, and Healing in The Yellow Birds and Youngblood” verfasst von / submitted by Emmanuel Enenkel angestrebter Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2019 / Vienna, 2019 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / UA 190 344 299 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Lehramtsstudium UF Englisch UF Psychologie und Philosophie degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Alexandra Ganser-Blumenau To those suffering from invisible wounds of war Contents INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________________ 3 I. HISTORY AND THEORY ________________________________________________________ 5 War and writing ____________________________________________________________________ 5 Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) ________________________________________________________________ 5 War literature _____________________________________________________________________________ 9 Writing as treatment ______________________________________________________________________ 17 Trauma, PTSD and moral injury ______________________________________________________ 21 Definition and Origin ______________________________________________________________________ 21 War-related PTSD Symptoms ________________________________________________________________ 24 Moral injury _____________________________________________________________________________ 30 Antidote ________________________________________________________________________________ 32 II. INNOCENCE, GUILT AND DIVISIONS ____________________________________________ 34 Recovery of corpses _______________________________________________________________________ 34 Killing and moral injury ____________________________________________________________________ 40 Divisions ________________________________________________________________________________ 48 Soldiers vs. enemies ____________________________________________________________________ 48 Soldiers vs. superiors ____________________________________________________________________ 51 Soldiers vs. civilians _____________________________________________________________________ 58 III. RECOVERY AND HEALING ____________________________________________________ 65 Bridging divides __________________________________________________________________________ 65 Bridging the soldier-enemy divide _________________________________________________________ 66 Bridging the soldier-superior divide ________________________________________________________ 69 Bridging the soldier-civilian divide _________________________________________________________ 71 PTSD and stigma __________________________________________________________________________ 74 Hope and healing through fiction ____________________________________________________________ 78 CONCLUSION ________________________________________________________________ 82 EPILOGUE ___________________________________________________________________ 86 BIBLIOGRAPHY _______________________________________________________________ 88 It would take a god to tell the tale [of war]. Homer INTRODUCTION The devastating impact of invisible wounds of war on young American soldiers is a central theme in contemporary US Iraq war fiction. Among the symptoms of combat- related PTSD and moral injury are profound emotions of guilt and shame, which play a central role in the two chosen novels The Yellow Birds and Youngblood. Violence, destruction, and collateral damage are characteristics of war, which affect not only deployed soldiers but even more so the civilian population in Iraq and although American casualties and their psychological suffering are tragic and devastating, it almost pales in comparison to the ongoing traumatization of the civilian population in Iraq. Previous war literature mostly dismisses this fact and focuses on the suffering of its own fellow countrymen, but these two novels are precursors of a new war literature, which equally considers the suffering and trauma of the civilian population living in the combat zone. This thesis argues that its protagonists’ psychological pain and anguish from combat trauma and moral injuries interrelate with the suffering of the Iraqi population. Witnessing and participating in killing teenage enemy combatants and innocent civilians psychologically and morally injures soldiers, who become increasingly alienated not only from their military superiors but also from their civilian population. In order to heal, overcoming these feelings of alienation is necessary and this is achieved by closing the soldier-civilian divide, developing empathy towards the enemy and by repairing the superiors’ betrayal of trust. US war veteran fiction proves cathartic not only for its authors but also for other fellow combatants and civilians alike since it helps non- combatants to understand the complexities and realities of war and its aftermath. The structure of this thesis has three main parts. The first part consists of two sections of which the first one is called war and writing. This section starts with the historical background of the Iraq war and its consequences, in which not only the veterans’ burdens are called to attention but also the suffering of the civilian population in Iraq. This is followed by a brief survey of the literary output of US Iraq war veterans, with focus on a perceived shift towards more inclusive narratives, or ‘counter-narratives,’ 3 as Petrovic (2) calls them, which acknowledge the suffering of Iraqi people. In this thesis, such narratives will be referred to as fatwa-and-fasil fiction, which term will be explained and illustrated. Concluded is this first part by the current research on therapeutic writing, as well as bibliotherapy, and its implications for war veteran fiction. The second section of the first part focuses on trauma, PTSD and moral injury and highlights the specifics of combat PTSD, while providing examples from both chosen primary sources. The last section of this part will discuss Larry Dewey’s concept of antidote experiences and Jonathan Shay’s concept of moral injury. While moral injury is concerned with moral transgressions of superiors or violations of deeply held beliefs, Dewey’s antidote experiences seem to provide an answer why some soldiers do not succumb to moral injury or PTSD despite traumatic war experiences. In the second part of the thesis, these theoretical frameworks and concepts will be applied through a close reading of the two debut novels The Yellow Birds and Youngblood. The themes of physical recovery of corpses, as well as killing in combat, will be analyzed in regard to loss of innocence. This loss of innocence and the allocation of blame are highlighted by three divisions, which soldiers painfully experience not only in the warzone but also after their deployment on American soil, thus contributing to their reintegration struggles. One reason for the veterans’ suffering is their involvement or witnessing of moral transgressions, often resulting in civilian casualties. Both superiors and civilians dismiss this and thus further burden ordinary soldiers. Autobiographical accounts from various war veteran authors support and emphasize this literary analysis. Recovery and healing, the final part of this thesis, investigates the protagonists’ possible recovery trajectories through an analysis of their attempts to bridge divides with their former enemies, their superiors and their own society. In the final section, some further remarks on the value of US war veteran fiction and how it can provide healing for both its authors and readers, veterans and civilians alike. It also can support civilians in their efforts to understand veterans and to help them with their reintegration attempts beyond simplistic rituals of innocence. One way of doing this is by listening to veterans stories and acknowledging that US war veterans are not only victims of war but at times also perpetrators and that the Iraqi suffering also needs to be taken into account since it often is one crucial reason for the moral injuries and PTSD symptoms of US soldiers. 4 I. HISTORY AND THEORY War and writing After a battle each soldier will have different stories to tell, vastly different stories, and that when a war is ended it is as if there have been a million wars, or as many wars as there were soldiers. Tim O’Brien Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) In the State of the Union address in 2002, US President George W. Bush proclaimed the war on terror and referred to Iraq as country within the ‘axis of evil’ since it presumably provided nuclear weapons to terrorists. In March 2003, Bush declared that the chief aims of war were to disarm Saddam Hussein of his WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction)1, to liberate the people of Iraq from its dictator and to end Iraq’s support of terrorism. Without UN backing and despite the efforts of US allies, whose leaders were convinced that there were no WMDs at Saddam’s disposal, the US-coalition forces invaded Iraq on the 21st of March 2003. While the previous military operations in Iraq were called Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), this new military offensive became known as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Only six weeks after the swift invasion, Bush declared that major combat operations ended, and that
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