Home Front Autobiographies of the 'War on Terror:' Narrative Liminality, Tacit Knowledge, and Affective Labor

Gerund K (2022)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes

Publication year: 2022

Publisher: transcript

Edited Volumes: Beyond Narrative: Exploring Narrative Liminality and Its Cultural Work

Series: Culture & Theory

City/Town: Bielefeld

Book Volume: 268

Pages Range: 187-201

ISBN: 978-3-8376-6130-9

Open Access Link: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6130-9/beyond-narrative/?c=313000018

Abstract

This chapter engages the phenomenon of narrative liminality by zooming in on the genre
of home front autobiographies from the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ It examines three case
studies: Jenn Carpenter’s “One Army Wife’s Tale” (2012), Lily Burana’s “I Love a Man in
Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles” (2009), and Taya Kyle’s “American
Wife: Love, War, Faith, and Renewal” (2015). Written by military spouses, these books
draw on readers’ emotional knowledge about family and romantic love and use their authors’
experiential knowledge as authorization. In the process, they create affective agency
for military spouses, manage public feelings about US warfare in the twenty-first century,
and invite readers to focus their attention on the domestic sphere—i.e., the home and the
homeland—rather than the major battlefields of the War on Terror abroad.

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How to cite

APA:

Gerund, K. (2022). Home Front Autobiographies of the 'War on Terror:' Narrative Liminality, Tacit Knowledge, and Affective Labor. In Herrmann, Sebastian M., Katja Kanzler, Stefan Schubert (Eds.), Beyond Narrative: Exploring Narrative Liminality and Its Cultural Work. (pp. 187-201). Bielefeld: transcript.

MLA:

Gerund, Katharina. "Home Front Autobiographies of the 'War on Terror:' Narrative Liminality, Tacit Knowledge, and Affective Labor." Beyond Narrative: Exploring Narrative Liminality and Its Cultural Work. Ed. Herrmann, Sebastian M., Katja Kanzler, Stefan Schubert, Bielefeld: transcript, 2022. 187-201.

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