Voices from Captivity

Interpreting the American POW Narrative

By: Robert C. Doyle

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Hardcover | 1 April 1994

At a Glance

Hardcover
388 Pages

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23.5 x 16.51 x 3.81

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Popularized by books and films like Andersonville, The Great Escape, and The Hanoi Hilton, and recounted in innumerable postwar memoirs, the POW story holds a special place in American culture. Robert Doyle's remarkable study shows why it has retained such enormous power to move and instruct us.

Long after wartime, memories of captivity haunt former wartime prisoners, their families, and their society-witness the continuing Vietnam MIA-POW controversies-and raise fundamental questions about human nature and survival under inhumane conditions. The prison landscapes have varied dramatically: Indian villages during the Forest Wars; floating hulks during the Revolution and War of 1812; slave bagnios in Algeria and Tripoli; hotels and haciendas during the Mexican War; large rural camps like Andersonville in the South or converted federal armories like Elmira in the North; stalags in Germany and death-ridden tropical camps in the Philippines; frozen jails in North Korea; and the "Hanoi Hilton" and bamboo prisons of Vietnam. But, as Doyle demonstrates, the story remains the same.

Doyle shows that, though setting and circumstance may change, POW stories share a common structure and are driven by similar themes. Capture, incarceration, isolation, propaganda, torture, capitulation or resistance, death, spiritual quest, escape, liberation, and repatriation are recurrent key motifs in these narratives. It is precisely these elements, Doyle contends, that have made this genre such a fascinating and enduring literary form.

Drawing from a wide array of sources, including official documents, first-person accounts, histories, and personal letters, in addition to folklore and fiction, Doyle illustrates the timelessness of the POW story and shows why it has become central to our understanding of the American experience of war.

Industry Reviews

A significant and thought-provoking work that presents a 'narrative truth' that has validity in what Doyle calls a 'world literature' of prison camp experience.--American Studies

It is a major achievement to impose structure and analysis on such a diverse body of material. This is a significant contribution to the study of the relationships among war, society, and the individual.--Journal of American History

An absorbing study of the commonality of POW narratives over the ast 300 years of American history, and very useful to those who want to expand their understanding of the POW experience.--Armor

A worthwhile read that goes a long way toward explaining the hold that captivity narratives have had on the American public.--Military History of the West

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Non-Fiction Literature, Poetry & Plays Anthologies (non-poetry)History Military History Warfare & Defence Other Warfare & Defence Issues Prisoners of War History & Criticism of Literature General Literary Studies

Foreword
Preface
Introduction	p. 1
Backgrounds
Soldier Chronicles: The Borders of Military Captivity	p. 9
The Evolution of POW Status: Establishing Order in Captivity	p. 37
Captivity Literature: Antecedents and the Context of American Colonial Narratives	p. 60
The Anatomy of Experience
Constructing the Narrative Contour: Time, Domains, Sequence, and Event-Scenarios	p. 81
Becoming a Prisoner of War: Transformation and Initiation	p. 89
Prisoners under Guard: Removes and Death Marches	p. 117
A Sense of Place: The Prison Landscape	p. 142
The Prisoner's War: Resistance and Torture	p. 171
The Line of Least Resistance: Assimilation and the Renegade Captive	p. 195
The Line of More Resistance: Committed Escapers	p. 213
Final Pathways to Freedom: Release, Repatriation, and the Prisoner's Lament	p. 231
Legacies
Missing: Unknown Soldiers and Unresolved Mysteries	p. 263
Lessons and Reflections	p. 281
Appendix 1: Captivity Narrative Frameworks	p. 297
Appendix 2: Prison Ships and Prison Camps in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America	p. 298
Appendix 3: World War I and World War II Data	p. 302
Appendix 4: Twentieth-Century Data	p. 308
Notes	p. 309
Works Cited	p. 339
Index	p. 359
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Voices from Captivity

Interpreting the American POW Narrative

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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