Our Wounded Warriors

Abstract

Chapter Three examines a "wounded warrior" stereotype that treats post-9/11 veterans as members of a victim class. Eva Illouz's commentary on America's "therapeutic culture" is used to explore how veterans gain cultural capital through embracing narratives of veteran identity centered on trauma. Likewise, Judith Butler's work is used to explain how veterans lose their rights to self-definition by conforming to those narratives. "Wounded warriors" remain silent because their wounds often do not fit neatly into popular conceptions of veteran woundedness. The chapter traces the evolution of the "wounded warrior" stereotype, first in a close reading of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage (1895), then in examples of denigration experienced by veterans of the First World War who were afflicted with shell shock, and later in a narrative structure that makes trauma central to the identity of the protagonist in Kevin Powers' Iraq War novel, The Yellow Birds (2012). Veterans have the power to challenge deficit-based narratives, but like their "hero" counterparts, "wounded warriors" face ongoing pressure to remain silent and conform to stereotypes. This chapter argues that traumas experienced in uniform are not always central to veteran identity, and veteran testimony is not always psychologically damaging.