ABSTRACT
Wars, soldiers, battles: literature is full of these. Armed conflict is among the earliest and most powerful subjects in literature and continues to preoccupy writers across the spectrum of genres and forms.1 During the twentieth century, however, the once clear divisions between war and peace, military and civilian life, have been eroded as weapons and military equipment have become embedded in national and international economies; as entire populations have become potential targets; and as weapons of mass destruction have irreversibly placed an existential burden not just upon the warrior class but upon humanity itself. Literature concerned with these matters is no longer straightforwardly a literature of war but rather a literature of militarization; further, given the collapsed distinction between military and civilians spheres, it might be more accurate to say that literature, along with everything else, has been militarized. Can we now say that there is an object of analysis called militarized literature – literature that has itself been organized for war? Such a literature would need to be distinguished from a militaristic literature, since militarization does not necessarily presuppose a celebration or endorsement of military values. How would a militarized literature be identified as such? What might be the conditions under which it is produced? Would such a literature have distinctive features or be specific to particular times or places?
