‘those letters keep me going’: Epistolary spaces and resilience-building processes in US soldiers to sweetheart war correspondence, 1942 to 1945

Anne Byrne; Tanja Kovačič

doi:10.4324/9781315849249-21

‘those letters keep me going’: Epistolary spaces and resilience-building processes in US soldiers to sweetheart war correspondence, 1942 to 1945

Anne Byrne, Tanja Kovačič

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Publication/Proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

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Abstract

Resilience is a complex social construct that is theoretically and methodologically challenging to research. Historically concerned with individual capacity to overcome adversity, the significance of diverse social and cultural contexts for understanding resilience is gaining in recognition (Ungar, 2008). In this chapter we examine an archive of soldiers’ letters home as a source for inquiry into resilience processes. What can we learn about resilience from letters? Letters can reflect the social, political, economic, historical and cultural contexts in which they are written and are connected with real lives in particular times and places (Stanley, 2004). The acts of reading and writing connect correspondents, temporarily transcending absence and the distances of time, space and location. Epistolary inquiry is an inductive process leading to a deeper analysis of the complex interconnections between writing about individual experiences and changing social contexts over time.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Constructing Narratives of Continuity and Change
Subtitle of host publication	A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives
Publisher	Taylor and Francis
Pages	159-171
Number of pages	13
ISBN (Electronic)	9781317909293
ISBN (Print)	9780415732277
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315849249-21
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2014

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‘those letters keep me going’: Epistolary spaces and resilience-building processes in US soldiers to sweetheart war correspondence, 1942 to 1945. / Byrne, Anne; Kovačič, Tanja.
Constructing Narratives of Continuity and Change: A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives. Taylor and Francis, 2014. p. 159-171.

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Publication/Proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

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‘those letters keep me going’: Epistolary spaces and resilience-building processes in US soldiers to sweetheart war correspondence, 1942 to 1945

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