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"I speak with the voice of things to come": reading "The Vietnam project" today
In this article I argue that a rereading of “The Vietnam Project” allows us to explore the varied functions of what has been dubbed “war-porn” in relation to global image consumption then (with respect to Vietnam) and now (with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan). From renewed interest in depictions of torture in Waiting for the Barbarians to acknowledging swipes at the Bush and Blair administrations in Diary of a Bad Year, recent Coetzee scholarship has been enlivened by debates clustered around the most recent wounding of the American body politic: 9/11. By analysing an earlier piece, which is preoccupied with a conflict for which the wound emerged as the defining trope, I consider the prophetic power of “The Vietnam Project”. I argue that it makes for compelling reading owing to issues such as wounding, trauma, war, its mediatisation, and the associated discourses that continue to haunt the American popular and political imagination.
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- Published
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- Published version
Journal
Journal of Literary StudiesISSN
0256-4718Publisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
29Page range
62-81Department affiliated with
- English Publications
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- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2013-10-09First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2013-10-09Usage metrics
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