Dressing Up For War: Transformations of Gender and Genre in the Discourse and Literature of War

Dressing Up for War is an interesting compilation of seventeen articles on the discourse of war and the way – in the editors' words – in which "wars have always been profoundly connected to subversion in the representation of the functions of gender and changes in the use of literary genres." Resulting partly from an international conference on the nature of war discourse organized by the University of Barcelona in 1999, this publication adds to the debate on the profound transformations wars have always entailed for both gender and genre, by offering enlightening and suggestive perspectives. The title itself proves very appropriate, since it foregrounds the ambivalent and manifold meanings that can be verified in the processes of role inversion and transvestism pervasive in war literature. Conversely, it also links to the subversion and expansion of literary genres to accommodate new subject positions and world views.