A Vietnam reading list (part 4)

Section II. Cultural Representations of the War: Critical Analysis, Fiction, Poetry, Film and Folklore

A. Analysis and Criticism: Cultural Representations of the Vietnam War.

Anderegg, Michael A., ed. Inventing Vietnam : The War in Film and Television. Culture and the Moving Image. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
*CORE* Excellent collection of 14 articles from varying perspectives on the contested meaning of Vietnam presented in the cultural representations of the war in film and on television. Fine introduction to the subject.

Beidler, Philip. Re-writing America : Vietnam Authors in their Generation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Dittmar, Linda and Gene Michard, eds. From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Gotera, Vince. Radical Visions: Poetry by Vietnam Veterans. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Gruner, Elliott. Prisoners of Culture : Representing the Vietnam P.O.W. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Hellmann, John. American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Jeffords, Susan. The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War. Bloomington, IN: University of Indoiana Press, 1989.

Lomperis, Timothy J. Reading the Wind: The Literature of the Vietnam War. With bibliographic commentary by John Clark Pratt. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987.

Louvre, Alf and J. Walsh, eds. Tell me Lies About Vietnam: Cultural Battles for the Meaning of the War. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1988.

Martin, Andrew. Receptions of War: Vietnam in American Culture. Oklahoma project for discourse and theory, v. 10. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

Searle, William J. ed. Search and Clear: Critical Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Shafer, D. Michael, ed. The Legacy: The Vietnam War in the American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.
An excellent collection of 14 articles bearing on various aspects of the cultural respresentations and differing socially created realities in the US cocerning the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Topics include the recreation of the war in the arts, the impact of the draft and the treatment of veterans and their narratives, and the contested nature of the discourse over the meaning and definition of the war.

B. Novels: Representations of the Vietnam War.

Baber, Asa. The Land of a Million Elephants. 2nd ed. reprint. Vietnam Generation Series. Burning Cities Press, 1992.

Bao Ninh. The Sorrow of War. London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1993; New York: Pantheon; reprint paper, Riverhead Books, 1996.

Browne, Corinne. Body Shop. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.

Bunting, Josiah. The Lionheads. New York: George Braziller, 1972; Popular Library, 1972.

Burdick, Eugene and William Lederer. The Ugly American. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958; reprint paper, Fawcett, 1987.

Butler, Robert Olen. The Alleys of Eden: A Novel. New York: Horizon, 1981; Ballantine, 1983; reissue paper, Owlet, 1994.

Cassidy, John. A Station in the Delta. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1979; Ballantine, 1989.

Coonts, Stephen. Flight of the Intruder. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986; New York: Pocket Books, 1991.

Crumley, James. One To Count Cadence. New York: Random House, 1969; Vintage, 1987.

Del Vecchio, John. The 13th Valley. New York: Bantam, 1982.

Duong Thu Huong. Paradise of the Blind. New York: William Morrow & Co, 1993; Penguin USA, 1994.

Ford, Daniel. Incident at Muc Wa. New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York: Viking, 1955; reprint, Modern Library, 1992; reissue paper, Penguin USA, 1991.

Hasford, Gustav. The Short Timers. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

Heinemann, Larry. Close Quarters. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1977.

Heinemann, Larry. Paco's Story. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1986; reprint paper, Viking, 1989.

Huggett, William Turner. Body Count. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973.

Karlin, Wayne, Le Minh Khue, and Truong Vu, editors. The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1995.
Compilation of works from the US, Vietnam and the overseas Vietnamese communities.

Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country : A Novel. New York: Harper Row, 1985; reissue paper, Harperperennial, 1993.

Merkin, Robert. Zombie Jamboree. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

O'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. New York: Delacorte Press, 1980; Dell, 1980; reissue paper, Delacorte Press, 1989.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Penquin, 1990; reprint paper, Penguin USA, 1991.
One of the finest stories I have ever read -- DF

Rubin, Jonathan. The Barking Deer. New York: George Braziller, 1974.
A surrealistic fable, set in the Central Highlands during the advisory years. The work may not be for everyone, but it deals with the universal anti-war issue of what happens to all the people who are sucked along in the grand "visions" of opposing forces going to war.

Stone, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974; reprint paper, New York: Penguin USA, 1989.

Webb, James. Fields of Fire. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978; reprint paper, New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

Wright, Stephen. Meditations in Green. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983; reissue paperback, Delta, 1996.

C. Poetry

Anderson, Doug. The Moon Reflected Fire. Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books, 1994.

Baladan, John. After Our War. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974.

Berry, D. C. Saigon Cemetery. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1972.

Ehrhart, W. D. To Those Who Have Come Home Tired. New York: Thunder Mountain, 1984.

Ehrhart, W. D. ed. Carrying the Darkness : The Poetry of the Vietnam War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1989.

McDonald, Walter. Caliban in Blue. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 1976.

Miller, Stephen P. An Act of God (Memories of Vietnam). Eureka, CA: Northcoast View Press, 1987

Rottman, Larry, Jan Berry, and Basil T. Paquet, eds. Winning Hearts and Minds. Perkasie, PA: East River Anthology, 1972.

Shea, Dick. Vietnam Simply. Coronada, CA: Pro Tem, 1967.

Van Devanter, Lynda and Joan A. Furey, eds. Visions of War, Dreams of Peace: Writings of Women in the Vietnam War. New York: Warner Books, 1991.

D. Folklore.

Written:

Clark, Gregory R. Words of the Vietnam War: The Slang, Jargon, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Nomenclature, Nicknames, Pseudonyms, Slogans, Specs, Euphemisms, Double-talk, Chants, and Names and Places of the Era of United States Involvement in Vietnam. Jeferson NC: McFarland and Co., 1990.

Dane, Barbara and Silber, Irwin. The Vietnam Songbook. New York: Guardian, 1969. Songs from the anti-war movement

Tuso, Joseph F. Singing the Vietnam Blues : Songs of the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam. Texas A & M University military history series, v 19. College Station: Texas A and M Press, 1990.

Recorded:

In Country. Saul Broudy, Chip Dockery, Bull Durham, Bill Ellis, Toby Hughes, Dick Jonas, Chuck Rosenberg. Flying Fish Records, 1991.