ENGL151-08, First Year Writing Seminar: Fighting Words: Narrating American Wars, Spring 2013

Abstract

We will look closely at both World War II and the Vietnam War, and discuss how these two particular wars have shaped and continue to shape American cultural consciousness. As a class, we will investigate the myriad ways these two wars are represented not only in historical accounts, but also in literary works, pieces of journalism, films, documentaries, photographic images, and memorials. We will ask how an understanding of war is shaped through these mediums and how, in turn, cultural consciousness is shaped through our understanding of a particular war. In other words, what “work” do these representations do? Do they re-write certain wars as part of a nation-building exercise or, conversely, do they work as a piece of protest? How do these texts work to complicate and dismantle previous assumptions regarding a particular war? By addressing these questions and many more, we will begin to form an understanding of how and why wars are scripted and remembered in very particular ways.