Publisher's Description
"This new Approaches collection is both for aficionados of Tim O’Brien (and Vietnam literature) and for those with somewhat broader literary interests. I have nothing but glowing praise for its substantial achievement."
“The works of Tim O’Brien are among the most significant recent contributions to a lengthy canon of war literature,” write the editors of this volume; they serve “as an ideal point of entry for discussions of war and its human impact.” The author of the highly acclaimed The Things They Carried, O’Brien is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of a National Book Award for Going After Cacciato.
This volume in the Approaches to Teaching series considers the range and depth of O’Brien’s writing, with an emphasis on works that focus on the Vietnam War. Part 1, “Materials,” provides information on O’Brien’s life and an overview of his literary output. It also directs readers to critical and reference works on subjects encountered in his writing. The twenty-three essays in part 2, “Approaches,” provide historical background on the Vietnam War; explore narrative issues in O’Brien’s works, such as the melding of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir; and suggest ideas for teaching the author’s works in a variety of classroom and conceptual settings (e.g., composition, American literature, war fiction, narrative theory, postmodernism).
Contributors
Milton J. Bates
Brenda M. Boyle
Russell Morton Brown
Doug Davis
Jen Dunnaway
Benjamin Goluboff
Reita Gorman
Jeremy Green
Janis E. Haswell
Mark Heberle
Tobey C. Herzog
Christopher Kocela
David Magill
Derek C. Maus
Zivah Perel
Jennifer Peterson
Elisabeth H. Piedmont-Marton
Kathleen M. Puhr
Edward J. Rielly
Eric G. Waggoner