The Voice of the Veteran in 18th- and 19th-Century American Literature

FAIN: HB-257235-18

William Conrad Corley, Jr
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Pomona, CA 91768-2557)

Research and writing leading to publication of a book on depictions of war veterans in American literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.

This project provides a genealogy of veteran depictions in literature by popular and influential American authors, most of whom are not themselves veterans, because the trope of the veteran as it has developed in American history, literature, and culture is the product of many intersecting forces and constituencies. This genealogy reveals how the type of knowledge and authority attributed to veterans has shifted over time, with varying effects on the perceptions of veterans and the ability of veterans to participate in the public sphere through writing. Over the course of the nineteenth century, veteran characters become the locus for a particular form of authoritative knowledge that is both empirical and revelatory, but the possession of such knowledge comes to be seen in the post-bellum period as exceeding human capacity, thus leading either to the death or silencing of the veteran.