BA Seminar: American War Literature

B.Sc. seminars
obligatory courses

This seminar hinges on the assumption that American wars are key nodes of American intellectual, social, political history. This is especially true of the wars as they are expressed, recorded, reimagined, commemorated, in literature and other creative arts. American war literature will be studied as reflecting major shifts in American consciousness, political social history, and aesthetics. The seminar will begin with discussions of selected texts which should provoke fresh research questions and ultimately good manageable topics for BA papers.

Steinbeck once wrote that "all war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal" but this course will hinge on the assumption that American wars in fact offer key slices of American intellectual, social, and political history. This is especially true of the wars as they are expressed, recorded, reimagined, commemorated, in great works of literature. The seminar will revolve around several American wars--the Civil War, World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War. We will move from Natasha Trethewey’s interrogation of the memory of the Civil War to War on Terror as represented by alienated, estranged Native Americans. American war literature will be studied as reflecting major shifts in American consciousness, political social history, and aesthetics. The aim is to identify interesting themes and approaches to be drawn upon in the process of developing the conception and methodology of would-be BA papers.

Primary literature

William March, Company K

William Faulkner, The Unvanquished

Ambrose Bierce, selected stories

Randall Jarrell, WWII poems

Natasha Trethewey, Native Guard

Adrian C. Louis, Evil Corn

Secondary literature

1. Lorrie Goldensohn, ed. American War Poetry: An Anthology (Columbia University Press, 2006), ISBN 0231133103

2. Faith Barrett and Cristanne Miller, eds. "Words for the Hour": A New Anthology of American Civil War Poetry (University of Massachusetts Press, 2005) ISBN-10: 1558495096

3. Diederik Oostdijk, Among the Nightmare Fighters: American Poets of World War II (University of South Carolina Press, 2011) ISBN-10: 157003995X

4. Susan Schweik, A Gulf So Deeply Cut: American Women Poets and the Second World War (University of Wisconsin, 1991) ISBN-10: 0299130444

5. Kate McLoughlin, ed. The Cambridge Companion to War Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2009) ISBN-10: 0521720044

8. Lorrie Goldensohn, Dismantling Glory: Twentieth-Century Soldier Poetry (Columbia University Press, 2006) ISBN-10: 0231119399

9. Philip Metres, “With Ambush and Stratagem”: American poetry in the Age of Pure War” from Oxford Handbook of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry by Cary Nelson, 331-368.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. 2008. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing and Publishing. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Murray, Rowena. 2017. How to Write a Thesis. 4th ed. Buckingham, England: Open University Press.

Charles Lipson, How to Write a BA Thesis: A Practical Guide from Your First Ideas to Your Finished Paper. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2005.

KNOWLEDGE

The student

- has in-depth knowledge about some of the ways in which war literature has reflected and affected the development of American literature

-knows and understands the changing views of the West on war and how these views are reflected in Am. literature

- has some knowledge about the historical and ideological contexts of war literature

SKILLS

- knows how to develop of a manageable research topic for a BA paper

- knows how to formulate research questions

- knows how to construct an argument in support of a thesis

SOCIAL COMPETENCES

- has skills to cooperate with others in a group in the classroom

- understand the importance of war literature and arts for a citizen of a democratic country

- understands the importance of reflection on the significance of American wars in the USA

To complete the BA seminar you have to:

1. Attendance – each student is allowed to have two absences. Period. Save the two allowed absences for the days when you get ill.

2. Actively participate in the classes.

3. Meet all the four main deadlines for the conceptualization, research, outline, and completion of the BA thesis.