Social Memory and War Narratives

By: Christina D. Weber

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Synopsis: The Vietnam War has had many long-reaching, traumatic effects, not just on the veterans of the war, but on their children as well. In this book, Christina D. Weber examines the concept of the war as a social monad, a confusing array of personal stories and public histories that disrupt traditional ways of knowing the social world. This emphasis draws out the instrumental role the traumatic subject plays in the second generation's articulation of the presence of the Vietnam War. Weber examines the social monad through interviews conducted with children of Vietnam Veterans and social artifacts of the Vietnam War, including Oliver Stone's films on the Vietnam War (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, and Heaven and Earth), autobiographies of Vietnam Veterans, and media images of the Vietnam Veteran in current society.