History, culture and memory in Recollections of Rifleman Harris and Rough Sketches of the Life of an Old Soldier
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[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] The growing field of "new military history" presents innovative opportunities for literary scholars in the critical interpretation of military memoirs. However, reconciling literary, historical, and military studies requires careful consideration of both goals and outcomes. This thesis establishes a critical framework for the close study of military memoirs by comparing two popular accounts from soldiers who served in the same unit during the First Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. While Recollections of Rifleman Harris and Rough Sketches of the Life of an Old Soldier represent the perspectives of different discourses in separate literary mediums and periods, considering both texts as literary and historical documents within cultural studies allows scholars to construct a more comprehensive picture of the humans behind the war. Drawing upon recent work in cultural military historiography known as "new military history," this framework also considers John A. Lynn's distinction between "popular," "applied," and "academic" history to situate discursive boundaries in the goals of academic institutions. By exploring the contested academic history of the word "culture," considering the literary history of the texts, and conducting a close reading of the texts along lines of identity formation and literary medium, this approach establishes academic framework for the literary study of military memoirs at United States service academies
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M.A.