“How do you get to be a scumbag?” wonders the veteran protagonist of Nico Walker’s novel, “Cherry”. A tale of war, dope fiends and bank robbery, Walker’s auto-fictional debut isn’t short of despicable people doing despicable things. The scumbag veteran, however, marks a striking departure from the veteran hero familiar to the contemporary cultural landscape.
View More Decentring the “Scumbag” VeteranAuthor: Sarah Collier
Sarah Collier is a PhD student in English Literature at UCL. Her research explores representations of military masculinities in contemporary American war narratives.