Departmental Honors Project Title
Blowin' in the Wind: The Contribution of the Weather Underground to the Canon of Trauma Literature
Date of Award
Spring 2013
Degree Type
Honors Project
School
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
Elstrom Park, Anne C.
Abstract
The literature of the Weather Underground Organization is, to a large degree, a single and superfluous voice in an outpouring of other texts drafted by those who directly experienced the horror of the American War in Vietnam. Declarations, statements, and communiqués penned by the organization, later revised into compilations and memoirs, attempted to rile and rouse a generation of activists. Relying heavily on the notion of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, a German concept of confronting historical trauma, literature of the WUO is shrouded in an intense morality that not only challenges criticisms of the organization, but complicates the designation of domestic terrorism that plagues it. In conjunction with Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone and William Ehrhart's Vietnam-Perkasie, the works of the Weather Underground generate a definitive commentary on the credibility of memory, the implications of rewriting history, and the complexities of ideology. The Weather Underground, in a manner similar to, but decidedly distinct from the literature of veterans, experienced the trauma of the Vietnam War and attempted to bear witness, to engage their generation and those decades later in a dialogue on the veracity of history and the authenticity of revolution.
Recommended Citation
Bishop, Caitlin D., "Blowin' in the Wind: The Contribution of the Weather Underground to the Canon of Trauma Literature" (2013). Departmental Honors Projects. 1.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/dhp/1
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
Departmental Honors Project