Dirty Wars

John Beck

Description

Since World War II, the American West has become the nation’s military arsenal, proving ground, and disposal site. Through a wide-ranging discussion of recent literature produced in and about the West, Dirty Wars explores how the region’s iconic landscapes, invested with myths of national virtue, have obscured the West’s crucial role in a post–World War II age of “permanent war.”

 

In readings of western—particularly southwestern—literature, John Beck provides a historically informed account of how the military-industrial economy, established to protect the United States after Pearl Harbor, has instead produced western waste lands and “waste populations” as the enemies and collateral casualties of a permanent state of emergency. Beck offers new readings of writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Leslie Marmon Silko, Don DeLillo, Rebecca Solnit, Julie Otsuka, and Terry Tempest Williams. He also draws on a variety of sources in history, political theory, philosophy, environmental studies, and other fields. Throughout Dirty Wars, he identifies resonances between different experiences and representations of the West that allow us to think about internment policies, the manufacture of atomic weapons, the culture of Cold War security, border policing, and toxic pollution as part of a broader program of a sustained and invasive management of western space.

Sujets

• Idioma inglés
• USA
• United States of America
• English
• États-Unis
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803226692
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

D I RT Y WA R S

p o s t w e s t er n hor i z ons

General Editor William R. Handley University of Southern California

Series Editors José Aranda Rice University

Melody Graulich Utah State University

Thomas King University of Guelph

Rachel Lee University of California, Los Angeles

Nathaniel Lewis Saint Michael’s College

Stephen Tatum University of Utah

Dirty Wars Landscape , Power , and Waste in Western American Literature

John Beck

u n i v e r si t y of ne br a sk a pr e s s • l i nc ol n a nd l ond on

© 2009 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beck, John, 1963–  Dirty wars: landscape, power, and waste in western American literature / John Beck.  p. cm. — (Postwestern horizons)  Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-2631-9 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. American literature—West (U.S.)—History and criticism. 2. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 3. West (U.S.)—In literature. 4. Politics and literature—United States—History—20th century. 5. Politics and culture—United States—History—20th century. 6. War and literature. I. Title. PS 271. B 43 2009  810.9'35878—dc22 2009024329

Set in Quadraat by Kim Essman. Designed by R. W. Boeche.

For E

CON T E N T S

 Acknowledgments

Introduction Dirty Wars

 1. The Purloined Landscape

 2. The Prehistory of the  Permanent War Economy

 3. Dust Breeding Narratives of Inter(n)ment

 4. Learning from Los Alamos

 5. Gridlocked and Homeless

6. Loomings Dread in West Texas

 7. After Nature Gothic Contamination

 8. After Nature Writing

 9. The West as Cold War Museum

 10. The Fringe of Empire

Conclusion Endless War

 Notes

 Index

ix

1

19

49

73

101

125

157

177

203

233

253

283

297

339

ACK NOW L E DGM E N T S

I would not have started on this book without the time and space made available to me during a research fellowship at Darwin College, Cam- bridge. I would not have finished it without the continued financial and collegial support of the School of English at Newcastle University. A Brit- ish Academy award made it possible for me to travel extensively in the U.S. Southwest, and an Arts and Humanities Research Board Research Leave Award gave me the time to complete the project. A good deal of the material for this book was tried out, in one form or another, at conferences in the United States and United Kingdom, and I would like to thank the people I had the good fortune to meet at those events, many of whom have become friends. Among those who organized events, shared panels, or generally showed an interest, particular thanks go to Linnie Blake, Neil Campbell, Audrey Goodman, David Holloway, Martin Padget, Steve Tatum, and Rick Wallach. I also want to thank Car- oline Levander, Krista Comer, and José Aranda for their hospitality dur- ing a visit to Rice University in 2004, and John Armitage, Ryan Bishop, Dan Brooke, Darren Carlaw, Matthew Cornford, Paul Crosthwaite, John Dickie, Stacy Gillis, Steve Graham, Ruth Helyer, Colin Hutchinson, Al- lan Kristensen, Tom Theobald, Melanie Waters, Anne Whitehead, and Sue Wragg for conversation, correspondence, and advice. Ladette Randolph and the Postwestern Horizons series editors helped me get the project into shape. Audrey Goodman, William Handley, and Sue Breckenridge offered invaluable criticisms and suggestions at cru- cial stages, while Kristen Elias Rowley and others at the University of Ne- braska Press have made the publication process a pleasure. Needless to say, any shortcomings and errors remain mine. Finally, thanks to Paula for living with my passions, and to Edmund, who arrived in the middle to become first among them.