Social Memory and War Narratives: Transmitted Trauma among Children of Vietnam War Veterans

225 Pages·2015·1.56 MB·English

by  Christina D. Weber (auth.)

Social Memory and War Narratives
Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict
Series Editors: Ihab Saloul, Rob van der Laarse, and Britt Baillie
This book series explores the relationship between cultural heritage and conflict. The
key themes of the series are the heritage and memory of war and conflict, contested
heritage, and competing memories. The series editors seek books that analyze the
dynamics of the past from the perspective of tangible and intangible remnants, spaces,
and traces as well as heritage appropriations and restitutions, significations, musealiza-
tions, and mediatizations in the present. Books in the series should address topics such
as the politics of heritage and conflict, identity and trauma, mourning and reconcil-
iation, nationalism and ethnicity, diaspora and intergenerational memories, painful
heritage and terrorscapes, as well as the mediated reenactments of conflicted pasts.
Dr. Ihab Saloul is assistant professor of cultural studies, and academic coordinator
of Heritage and Memory Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Saloul’s interests
include cultural memory and identity politics, narrative theory and visual analysis,
conflict and trauma, diaspora and migration as well as contemporary cultural thought
in the Middle East.
Professor Rob van der Laarse is research director of the Amsterdam School for
Heritage and Memory Studies (ASHMS) and Westerbork Professor of Heritage of
Conflict and War at VU University Amsterdam. Van der Laarse’s research focuses on
(early) modern European elite and intellectual cultures, cultural landscape, heritage
and identity politics, and the cultural roots and postwar memory of the Holocaust and
other forms of mass violence.
Dr. Britt Baillie is a founding member of the Centre for Urban Conflict Studies
at the University of Cambridge, and a research fellow at the University of Pretoria.
Baillie’s interests include the politicization of cultural heritage, heritage and the city,
memory and identity, religion and conflict, theories of destruction, heritage as com-
mons, contested heritage, and urban resistance.
Also in the series:
Social Memory and War Narratives: Transmitted Trauma among Children of
Vietnam War Veterans
by Christina D. Weber
Social Memory and
War Narratives
Transmitted Trauma among Children
of Vietnam War Veterans
Christina D. Weber
SOCIAL MEMORY AND WAR NARRATIVES
Copyright © Christina D. Weber, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50151-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-50553-1 ISBN 978-1-137-49665-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137496652
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weber, Christina D., 1971–
Social memory and war narratives : transmitted trauma among
children of Vietnam War veterans / Christina D. Weber.
pages cm.—(Palgrave studies in cultural heritage and conflict)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Social aspects—United States.
2. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—United States—Psychological aspects.
3. Veterans—Mental health—United States 4. Veterans—United
States—Family relationships. 5. Veterans’ families—United States.
6. Memory—Social aspects—United States. 7. Collective memory—
United States. 8. Post-traumatic stress disorder—United States.
9. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Influence. I. Title.
DS559.8.S6W43 2015
362.86(cid:25)30973—dc23 2014043780
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: April 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the men and women who participated in
this study along with their families. Thank you for sharing
your lives and experiences
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C O N T E N T S
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction The Traffic in Memories 1
One Exploring Trauma and Memory through the
Social Monad 25
Two Conceptualizing the Vietnam Veteran Narrative
as a Narrative of Trauma 47
Three Exploring the Social Monad through the Crisis
of Articulation 83
Four The Vietnam Veteran Father: Reconfiguring
Hegemonic Discourses of Masculine Subjectivity 121
Five Narrative Disruptions of the Dominant Fiction 153
Thoughts and Conclusions Stretching toward and beyond
the Horizon 193
Methodological Appendix 201
Notes 205
Bibliography 213
Index 219
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I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Figures
0.1 Father and Daughter, circa 1981 3
0.2 War Locker—The Gift 18
Table
A.1 Interviewee details 203