Saving Private Lynch [Op-Ed Piece]

WASHINGTON — The rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch by American Special Forces from an Iraqi hospital near Nasiriya was an impressive feat of planning, bravery and luck. Yet the ecstatic media response cries out for an explanation larger than the celebration of good news, even in a war that has taken longer than many expected. Private Lynch's story resonates because it is the latest iteration of a classic American war fantasy: the captivity narrative.

Since the Indian wars of the mid-1600's, tales about the capture and rescue of hostages have been told and told again — in novels, autobiographies and, later, in movies and TV. In these stories, the captive (an ordinary, innocent individual, often a woman) embodied a people threatened from outside. The captive confronted dangers and upheld her faith; in so doing, she became a symbol, representing the nation's virtuous identity to itself.

In 1682 Mary Rowlandson, a New England minister's wife, published a wildly popular account of her abduction by Indians during King Philip's War. Captured after a battle, Rowlandson became a servant in the household of a Pocasset tribal leader and endured hunger and fear at the hands of her captors, whom she described as "barbarous" and "black creatures of the night." Her narrative, like others of the genre, showcased her grit in fighting to survive amid the heathens. (In another story, the hostage, Hannah Dunston, killed 10 of her captors and fled with their scalps.)

Yet these captives were victims as well as heroes, and their stories also emphasized their femininity. Rowlandson's account begins with the death of her child during the raid; throughout she speaks of her longing for her family. Ultimately, the narratives suggested, God would protect a worthy nation as he saved his innocent daughters.

The captivity theme appeared in various forms over the centuries, but it reached its television-age apotheosis only with the Iranian crisis of 1979-1980. For 444 days, Islamic revolutionaries held 52 Americans at the United States Embassy in Tehran. Like Mary Rowlandson, these captives were ordinary people who became national symbols through their encounter with a foreign people. Although most of the women were released early on, the hostages were nonetheless identified with traditional feminine categories — home, family, domesticity — as cameras showed us their families' living rooms, church services and Christmas celebrations. The failed rescue mission of April 1980, in which American helicopters crashed outside Tehran, was viewed as a failure not only of equipment and military planning but of the American dream of seeing ourselves as both victims and heroes.

In the news media's telling, Private Lynch is both — in a way a man never could have been. She is tough, a soldier seized in the line of duty. Like Hannah Dunston, she was "fighting to the death." But she is also young, white and pretty. The focus on her injuries points up her vulnerability. Even her bravery is feminized. "Talk about spunk!" Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas said, using language we didn't hear when, say, Capt. Scott O'Grady was rescued from Bosnia in 1995.

Accounts of the Lynch rescue have depicted it, implicitly or explicitly, as the classic happy ending of a classic American captivity story. If the war's first weeks didn't give us as many pictures of Iraqis welcoming their own rescue by American liberators as we expected, the image of a blonde American woman being saved may be the next best thing. After all, Americans were primed to expect a story of rescue — not just because our president told us that we would save Iraq and ourselves, but because for more than two centuries our culture has made the liberation of captives into a trope for American righteousness.

Melani McAlister, associate professor of American studies at George Washington University, is author of ``Epic Encounters: Culture, Media and U.S. Interests in the Middle East.''

Curriculum Vitae
MELANI MCALISTER
Dept. of American Studiesph: 202-994-6073
George Washington University mmc@gwu.edu
2108 G. St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
Current Position:
Assistant Professor of American Studies, The George Washington University
Education
Ph.D. American Civilization, Brown University, May 1996.
A.M., American Civilization, Brown University, May 1990.
B.A., summa cum laude, International Studies (Middle East), UNC - Chapel Hill, 1984.

Awards and Honors
Epic Encounters selected as one of the Village Voice “Favorite Books of 2001.”
NEH Summer Seminar, “Refugee Intellectuals: Adorno, Mann, and Schoenberg,” 2000, Boston University.
Visiting Fellow, Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion, 1998-99
Non-Resident Fellow, Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Center, 1998-99.
R. H. Gabriel Dissertation Prize, American Studies Association, 1996.
Finalist, Society for Cinema Studies dissertation award, 1996.
Brown University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1994.
Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, 1989-91,1993-94.

Book
Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945-2000
University of California Press., "American Crossroads" series, September 2001.

Academic Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Commentary on September 11, solicited as part of special Roundtable issue, Journal of American History,
forthcoming issue September 2002.
“Left Behind and The New Fundamentalism,” solicited by American Literature, due to journal February 2002.
“Black Islam and African American Cultural Politics,” in John Giggie and Diane Winston, eds., Faith in the
Market: Religion, Urban Identities, and Consumer Culture, Rutgers Univ. Press, Spring 2002.
"One Black Allah: The Middle East in African American Cultural Politics, 1955-1967," American Quarterly,
vol. 51, no. 3 (September 1999).
M. McAlister, 2
"'The Common Heritage of Mankind': Negotiating Race, Nation, and Masculinity in the King Tut Exhibit,"
Representations 54 (Spring 1996).

Non-peer-reviewed publications
“Television, Terrorism, and the Making of Incomprehension” The Chronicle Review, December 7, 2001.
“Searching for Foreign Policy Lessons,” Christian Science Monitor On-Line, posted October 2001.

Book Reviews (selected)
Review essay, “Required Reading: Orientalism,” in Roy Rosensweig and Jean-Christophe Agnew, eds., A
Companion to Post-1945 America, Rutgers Univ. Press, forthcoming summer 2002.
Review essay on recent books in American Studies, solicited by American Literary History, due February
2002.
Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East, by Judith Caesar, in Women's Review of Books,
December 1997.

Conference Presentations (selected)
Organization of American Historians (OAH), “Veiled Threats: American feminism and the Muslim Woman,”
forthcoming April 2002.
American Studies Association (ASA), “Globalizing Sisterhood: Arab Women Writers and American
Feminism, 1975-1985,” November 2001.
Society for Cinema Studies, 2001. “Visualizing the End of Times: Hollywood’s Apocalyptic Imaginary,” at
Washington, DC.
Yale University conference on the United States and the Middle East, December 2000. “Biblical Epic Films,
Suez, and the Cultural Politics of U.S. Power,” at New Haven, CT.

Invited Presentations (selected)
University of Washington, Seattle. Public lecture, sponsored by the Taylor Center for Transnational Studies,
January 2002.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Public lecture, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Center,
January 2002.
Turkish American Studies Association, keynote address, “Religion, Culture, and U.S.-Middle East
Encounters,” Antalya, Turkey, November 2001.
Harvard University, Program in History and Literature, May 1999.

Page 1 Curriculum Vitae
MELANI MCALISTER
Dept. of American Studies
ph: 202-994-6073
George Washington University
mmc@gwu.edu2
108 G. St. NW
Washington, DC 20052
Current Position:Assistant Professor of American Studies,
The George Washington University
EducationPh.D. American Civilization, Brown University, May 1996.
A.M., American Civilization, Brown University, May 1990.
B.A., summa cum laude, International Studies (Middle East), UNC - Chapel Hill, 1984.
Awards and Honors

Epic Encounters selected as one of the Village Voice"Favorite Books of 2001.
"NEH Summer Seminar, "Refugee Intellectuals: Adorno, Mann, and Schoenberg," 2000, Boston University.
Visiting Fellow, Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion,1998-99
Non-Resident Fellow, Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Center, 1998-99.
R. H. Gabriel Dissertation Prize, American Studies Association, 1996.
Finalist, Society for Cinema Studies dissertation award, 1996.
Brown University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1994.
Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, 1989-91,1993-94.
Book Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945-2000
University of California Press., "American Crossroads" series, September 2001.
Academic Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Commentary on September 11, solicited as part of special Roundtable issue, Journal of American History,forthcoming issue September 2002.
"Left Behindand The New Fundamentalism," solicited by American Literature,due to journal February 2002.
"Black Islam and African American Cultural Politics," in John Giggie and Diane Winston, eds., Faith in the Market: Religion, Urban Identities, and Consumer Culture, Rutgers Univ. Press, Spring 2002.
"One Black Allah: The Middle East in African American Cultural Politics, 1955-1967," American Quarterly,vol. 51, no. 3 (September 1999).

Page 2
M. McAlister, 2"'The Common Heritage of Mankind': Negotiating Race, Nation, and Masculinity in the King Tut Exhibit,"Representations 54 (Spring 1996).
Non-peer-reviewed publications
"Television, Terrorism, and the Making of Incomprehension" The Chronicle Review, December 7, 2001.
"Searching for Foreign Policy Lessons," Christian Science Monitor On-Line, posted October 2001.
Book Reviews (selected)Review essay, "Required Reading: Orientalism," in Roy Rosensweig and Jean-Christophe Agnew, eds., ACompanion to Post-1945 America, Rutgers Univ. Press, forthcoming summer 2002.
Review essay on recent books in American Studies, solicited by American Literary History, due February 2002.
Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East, by Judith Caesar, in Women's Review of Books,December 1997.
Conference Presentations(selected)Organization of American Historians (OAH), "Veiled Threats: American feminism and the Muslim Woman,"forthcoming April 2002.
American Studies Association (ASA), "Globalizing Sisterhood: Arab Women Writers and AmericanFeminism, 1975-1985," November 2001.
Society for Cinema Studies, 2001.
"Visualizing the End of Times: Hollywood's Apocalyptic Imaginary," atWashington, DC.Yale University conference on the United States and the Middle East, December 2000.
"Biblical Epic Films,Suez, and the Cultural Politics of U.S. Power," at New Haven, CT.Invited Presentations(selected)University of Washington, Seattle. Public lecture, sponsored by the Taylor Center for Transnational Studies,January 2002.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Public lecture, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Center,January 2002.
Turkish American Studies Association, keynote address, "Religion, Culture, and U.S.-Middle EastEncounters," Antalya, Turkey, November 2001.
Harvard University, Program in History and Literature, May 1999

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.