BA Seminar: American War Literature 4219-ZS040
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.
Type of course
obligatory courses
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
The student understands:
- The main trends and works of American literature, the fundamental aspects of the history of American literature that are integral to the study of North American culture, as well as the theoretical and methodological foundations of literary studies.
- In-depth knowledge of American literature, particularly how American war literature has reflected and influenced the development of literature in the USA.
- How changing Western views on war are expressed in American poetry.
- The historical and ideological contexts of American war poetry.
- The importance of literature and art on war themes for the citizen of a democratic state.
- The significance of reflecting on the wars conducted by the United States.
- Basic concepts and principles of industrial property protection and copyright law, as well as forms of developing individual entrepreneurship.
SKILLS
The student is able to:
- Develop a research problem for a bachelor's thesis.
- Formulate research questions, skillfully select sources, acquire data, and interpret works of American literature in the context of the broader American culture.
- Construct a complex and multifaceted argument to support their thesis.
- Communicate on topics related to American literature using specialized terminology.
- Prepare oral and written works in English on issues related to American literature.
SOCIAL COMPETENCES
The student is ready to:
- Critically receive content related to American literature presented by the media and other environments.
- Use the acquired interdisciplinary knowledge about American literature to formulate their own opinions.
Assessment criteria
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.
Bibliography
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.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: