Tim O'Brien (1946- )

Public domain photograph of Vietnam Cu Chi Tunnels

A selective list of online literary criticism for Tim O'Brien, favoring signed articles, peer-reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites.

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Introduction & Web Sites

War, Literature, and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities. Ed. Donald Anderson. This excellent peer-reviewed journal contains scholarly essays, including many on Tim O'Brien's writing, reviews of scholarly books, personal essays, original fiction, and poetry on the subject of war. Their current issue and all issues from 1999-present are available, free, online. Some of the articles are indexed here. Also, "The Special Vietnam Issue." Ed. Thomas G. Bowie, Jr., 1998.

Herzog, Tobey C. "Tim O'Brien." Literary Encyclopedia. 12 Nov. 2004. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Tim O'Brien, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription.

"Tim O'Brien: An introduction to his writing." A summary of Tim O'Brien's books and publishing history, by rare book dealer Ken Lopez.

Franklin, H. Bruce. "Plausibility of Denial: Tim O'Brien, My Lai, and America." The Progressive December 1994. [re-published by the author.]

Literary criticism

Calloway, Catherine. "How to Tell a True War Story: Metafiction in The Things They Carried." Critique 36 (1995). [First page only, then subscription required, at Questia.]

Carpenter, Lucas. "'IT DON'T MEAN NOTHIN': Vietnam War Fiction and Postmodernism." College Literature 30 (Spring 2003) [free].

Ciocia, Stefania. "Conradian Echoes in Vietnam War Literature: Tim O'Brien's Rewriting of Heart of Darkness in 'Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong'" [and Joseph Conrad]. Symbiosis 11 (2007). [Preview, then purchase available].

Daley, Chris. "The 'Atrocious Privilege': Bearing Witness to War and Atrocity in O'Brien, Levi, and Remarque." IN Arms and the Self: War, the Military, and Autobiographical Writing (Kent State UP 2005). Publisher's web site.

Dayley, Glenn. "Familiar Ghosts, New Voices: Tim O'Brien's July, July." War, Literature, and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 15 (2003) [free].

Dunnaway, Jen. "'One More Redskin Bites the Dirt': Racial Melancholy in Vietnam War Representation." Arizona Quarterly, Spring 2008 [free].

Heberle, Mark A. A Trauma Artist: Tim O'Brien and the Fiction of Vietnam (U of Iowa P 2001). Publisher's web site.

Herzog, Tobey C. Writing Vietnam, Writing Life: Caputo, Heinemann, O'Brien, Butler (U of Iowa P 2008). Publisher's web site.

Jarvis, Brian. "Skating on a Shit Field: Tim O'Brien and the Topography of Trauma." IN American Fiction of the 1990s: Reflections of History and Culture (Routledge 2008). Publisher's web site.

Kaufmann, Michael. "The Solace of Bad Form: Tim O'Brien's Postmodernist Revisions of Vietnam in 'Speaking of Courage.'" Critique 46 (2005). [Preview, then subscription required, at Highbeam.]

O'Gorman, Farrell. "The Things They Carried as Composite Novel." War, Literature, and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 10 (1998) [free].

Piwinski, David J.. "My Lai, Flies, and Beelzebub in Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods." War, Literature, and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 12 (2000) [free].

Silbergleid, Robin. "Making Things Present: Tim O’Brien’s Autobiographical Metafiction." Contemporary Literature 50 (2009). [First page only.]

Timmerman, John H. "Tim O'Brien and the Art of the True War Story: 'Night March' and 'Speaking of Courage.'" Twentieth Century Literature Spring 2000 [free].

Vernon, Alex. "Salvation, Storytelling, and Pilgrimage in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried." Mosaic 36 (2003). [Preview.]

Vernon, Alex. Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O'Brien (U of Iowa P 2004). Publisher's web site.

Wesley, Marilyn. "Truth and Fiction in Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone and The Things They Carried." College Literature 29 (Spring 2002) [free].

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