War Stories: The Literature of War

Catalog description

War Stories: The Literature of War (US/IL): an exploration of representations of war in culture. This course considers how war is represented in a variety of cultural artifacts including literature, film, television, video games, music, art, etc. What stylizations, omissions, and blindnesses are necessary in order to represent the reality or the surreality of war? Readings are from the Classical period (the Iliad) to the current wars. Issues of memory, of traumatic reconstruction after the fact, and of the glorification of war as a necessary aftermath will complement some specific readings and films about (and often against) war. Texts and focus may vary but can include novels, film, video games, television, comics, social media, music, art, and more. Some of the major objectives of this course are to identify formal and aesthetic aspects of literary texts dealing with the topic of war and its aftermath including genre, period, style, theme, language, and narrative structure as well as analyze those texts and other artistic media within a comparative or global context. We will also compare written and visual texts from different cultures, regions, languages, time periods, and genres that deal with the concept of war.