The study onAmerican Vietnam War literature by American scholars started in the late 1960s,and American scholars have written a lot of papers and books on it. While itwas not until the 1990s that Chinese scholars began their research on thisfield. Therefore, articles or books on the study of the Vietnam War literatureare relatively few. Such books as History of American Literature in the 20thCentury published in 2000 by Professor Yang Renjing and the fourth volume ofNew Editions of American Literature History coming out in 2002 written byProfessor Wang Shouren introduce Chinese readers to American Vietnam Warliterature. However, both books only cover the major works of therepresentative Vietnam War novelist Robert Stone and Bobbie Ann Mason. In termsof the study on specific works of Vietnam War literature, Professor ChenDunquan’s A Meditation of Vietnam War: Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brienpublished in 1998 is perhaps the earliest article studying the novel of theVietnam War.

Novel is themost important literary genre in American Vietnam War literature, thus mostscholars mainly focus on interpreting those influential and classic novels ofthe Vietnam War. Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone, called one of the one hundredbest English-language novels, Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien, and Paco’sStory by Larry Heinemann, the National Book Award winner in 1987, are the mostfrequently discussed by Chinese scholars. But few scholars are familiar withthe memoirs of the Vietnam War. Professor Hu Yamin has some new and profoundinsights into the study of Vietnam War memoirs, which can be reflected in herarticles like Vietnam War: From Imagination to Disillusionment and The Image ofthe Vietnamese in the Vietnam War Literature. But, Born on the Fourth of Julyby Ron Kovic has rarely been touched upon so far. Some scholars discuss thenature of the war, the relationship between personal experience and the VietnamWar, and heroism in the book.

This paper mainly focuses on analyzing the gist of Ron Kovic’sautobiography, or rather memoir, Born on the Fourth of July, in the way ofunearthing the ideology of the USA reflected by the memoir and its influence onthe whole country before, during and after the Vietnam War, along with theimpact and trauma on the country brought about by the final disillusionment,namely American’s defeat of the war. The paper aims to rethink profoundly aboutideology and traumas related to the war in Born on the Fourth of July.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the most often discussed topic ofVietnam War literature, and it is the common theme of many relevant works. As aVietnam war witness and participant, Ron Kovic is the representative ofAmerican soldiers in the Vietnam war. He experienced the ideologicalinfiltration of the federal government before the war, where the Vietnam warwas advocated as the glorious and righteous act, and he has also been through ahard time after the war, tortured by the feeling of guilt, physicaldisabilities and disappointment about the government. In his memoir, thehegemonic discourse which reveals the ideology and political status at thattime is the great point for study. His own mind experience represents thechange of American soldiers’ attitude towards the Vietnam war. Therefore,studying the ideological infiltration and post-war trauma in the memoir is aneffective point of studying the Vietnam War literature.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter of the paperwould roughly introduce the background of the Vietnam war and relative literaryworks appeared after the war. Ron Kovic and the content of his memoir would bethe essential component of the first part. The second chapter would be theanalysis on the American ideology revealed in the memoir. Examples would bestated to discuss the reflections and influences of the problem, and alsocomments on it. The third part of the paper would analyze based on the aspectof trauma and think deeply about the change of attitude of soldiers even thewhole USA towards the Vietnam war, and the introspection of the war. The finalchapter sums up the ideology, traumas and their effects which are revealed bythe memoir. The memoir is studied by looking through relevant documents andarticles, analyzing essential elements of the memoir then summarizing theseelements.

The outline of contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Vietnam War