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Apr 26, 2024
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2012-2013 HillBook (Class of 2016) [ARCHIVED HILL BOOK]
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ENG 118 - In/Beyond the Trenches: Masculinity, Memory, and War NarrativesThree Credits
Fall Semester
This course examines how fiction writers, poets, filmmakers and theorists have engaged with the challenges of narrating the (often traumatic) experiences of war. While questions of how we write the history of war and what role memory plays in this will be central to our discussions, the overarching thematic focus of the course is the social construction of gender (particularly masculinity) in literary and cinematic narratives of war. In addition to literary texts, we will also examine the narratives constructed around current wars and war-related events, such as the aftermath of 9/11. Possible sub-themes include: trench war experience and shell shock in World War I literature; post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma, and “the return of the soldier” in Vietnam War literature and film; the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; war and 9/11. Among the texts likely to be included: the British “trench poets,” fiction by Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, Pat Barker’s Regeneration, Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods, war blogs, and current event news stories. Students can expect to write at least three papers, contribute to an on-line discussion forum, collaborate on a team film presentation, and participate in lively discussion.
Fulfills the Cornerstone Literature Requirement.
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