AMST242-12S2 (C)
Semester Two 2012
War and the American Historical Memory
Description
This course focuses on the way in which events of violence and tragedy in US history are remembered, forgotten and commemorated. Events that will be considered include the Civil War, the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Spanish American War, Pearl Harbor, Japanese American internment during World War Two, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and September 11th.
This course focuses on the way in which wars in US history are remembered, forgotten and commemorated with special emphasis on historical, fictional and documentary narratives. Film, museum displays and monuments are also considered in the shaping of a national collective memory of events associated with shame, violence, and self-sacrifice. Events that will be considered include the War of Independence, the Civil War, the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Spanish-American War, World Wars One and Two, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.
Learning Outcomes
This is an interdisciplinary course that examines the cultural politics of memory by drawing upon different kinds of historical narratives: fictional, autobiographical, documentary and film, as well as museum displays and commemorative monuments. Both written and visual culture will be used to explore how Americans have registered the experience of war, privately and publicly. Among the questions which we will address are:
What role wars play in the writing of US history,
how the memories of wars are contested and reinterpreted over time,
how people make sense of violence and tragedy,
why there is an insistence on authenticity in people’s accounts of war-time trauma,
how veterans come to terms (or don’t) with their wartime experiences,
how the commemoration of war acts as a source of national identity, and
how the commemoration of war enshrines beliefs and values and becomes part of the
nation’s collective memory.
Any 30 points at 100 level from the Arts schedule, or with the approval of the Progamme Coordinator.
Timetable
TERM THREE
July
10 Introduction: Memory and Narrative
11 War and Memory
Reading:
Blight, Beyond the Battlefield
Winter, Remembering War
17 Nations and Originary Violence: The War of Independence
Reading:
Behdad, A Forgetful Nation
Renan, “What is a Nation?”
18 Revolutionary Sites and Bicentennial Celebrations
Reading
Foote, Shadowed Ground
24 The Civil War: Gettysburg 1
Screening: Ken Burns’ The Civil War (50 mins)
Reading:
Toplin, ed., Ken Burns’s The Civil War: Historians Respond
25 Gettysburg 2
Screening: selected scenes from Gettysburg dir. Ronald F. Maxwell
Reading:
Weeks, Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine
Foote, pp.122-33
31 The Civil War
Reading:
Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory; Field, “Our Character is Our Fate,” American
Nineteenth Century History
August
1 The Battle of Chickamauga
Reading:
Bierce, “A Little of Chickamauga” (War Memories) “Chickamauga” and “Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge” (War Stories)
Lee, National Military Park Idea
8 The Massacre at Wounded Knee
Reading:
Gonzalez & Cook Lynn, The Politics of Hallowed Ground
14 Not the Great War
Reading:
TERM FOUR
September
4 Remember Pearl Harbor!
Reading:
Rosenberg, A Date Which Will Live
5 Iwo Jima: The War from Both Sides
Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers (dir. Eastwood)
12 The Holocaust: Liberating Ghosts
Screening:
One Survivor Remembers
18 The Holocaust: Its Meaning for Americans
Reading:
LaCapra, “Holocaust Testimonies: Attending to the Victim’s Voice”
19 The Holocaust in American Memory
Reading:
Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust
Young, Holocaust Memorials and Meanings
25 Vietnam: The Veterans’ Nightmare
Reading:
Brende & Parson, Vietnam Veterans
Eakins, Trauma & the Memory of Politics
26 Vietnam: Screening the Nightmare
Screening: excerpts from “Rambo,” “Platoon,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Apocalypse Now” and
“The Deer Hunter”
October
3 Vietnam: The American Nightmare
Screening: Excerpts from “Dear America: Letters from Vietnam”
Reading:
O’Brien, “How to Write a War Story”
10 The Gulf Wars and the Politics of Memory
Course Coordinator
Maureen Montgomery
Lecturer
Peter Field
Assessment
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Essay 1
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30%
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1500 words, Due 15 August 2012
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Essay 2
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40%
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1800 words, Due 30 September 2012
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Final Examination
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30%
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(2 hours)
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Examination and Formal Tests
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Exam
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Tuesday
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23 Oct 2012
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9:30am-11:30am
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Textbooks
SET TEXTS: [available in UBS and on restricted loan]
• Course Reader available on Learn
There are two additional novels which are required reading for HIST/AMST 342 students and which are available for purchase at UBS; there are two copies of each on restricted loan:
• Joy Kogawa, Obasan
• Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country
If UBS runs out of copies, you can get second-hand copies on Amazon but don’t leave it until the last minute.
There is also a list of supplementary readings to assist with research for essays and seminars.
For further information see
School of Humanities.
All AMST242 Occurrences
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AMST242-12S2 (C)
Semester Two 2012
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