HI 408 War in Film and Literature
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HI 408 War in Film and Literature Cathal J. Nolan Associate Professor of History Executive Director, International History Institute Combat, killing, suffering, death. This course explores these vivid human experiences through great, and lesser, works of film and literature. Topics range widely, from medieval Japan to Africa, the Americas and Europe, the two 20th century world wars and various Asmall wars@ of the 19th through 21st centuries. We explore "the angle of vision" problem: who should we trust more, eye-witness accounts of war, great poets and novelists, modern film-makers, or military and other historians? Who gets us closest to the "truth" about war as a fundamental element of the human experience and condition? Can we draw general conclusions about the experience of war? Or do we falsely impose our own ideas on history? Note: The course is thematic rather than narrative. Some of you will likely find it necessary to do additional reading on the general history of war (Allure of Battle is assigned to this end), and reading that situates specific wars in overarching patterns of military history. I will provide guidance in class and to those who ask for it outside class. Consult the course site on Blackboard, where there are many additional features, from photos and music files to videos, to still and animated maps. Administrative Information Office hours: Monday and Tuesday, 630-800 pm. Location: B-13, 725 Commonwealth Avenue. Phone: (617) 353-1165 e-mail: [email protected] Email is best method of contact. Participation 20% Required: unexcused absences will reduce final grade Film Review (6p) 20% February 23 Film Review (6p) 20% March 19 Term Paper (15-18p) 40% April 23 See the guide to the term paper posted online. There are three options. Choose carefully. Discuss your ideas with me in advance. You must engage the main historical issues but also how your chosen topic is represented or misrepresented in different media. You must include among your sources one major fictional account of war (a novel, play, or selections of war poetry), two or more films, and selected primary sources, and secondary works of traditional academic history. Be sure to discuss with me well in advance which films, works of fiction, and military or other histories best match your chosen topic. This can be done in person (best) or email (if necessary). Required Readings Note: Cheaper Kindle or other e-editions are acceptable. Given the likelihood of many in the class working from different media, I have not indicated pages. Read by chapter or title. Required: Keegan - Book of War, (Peng Rand), ISBN 9780140296556 Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels ISBN-13: 978-0345407276 Junger - Storm of Steel, (Peng Rand), ISBN 9780142437902 Eugene Sledge - With the Old Breed, (Peng Rand), ISBN 9780891419198 Stallworthy - New Oxford Book of War Poetry, 2nd (Oxf), ISBN 9780198704485 Nolan, Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost (Oxford: 2017). PDFs as listed (all available on Blackboard) Weekly Subject List Note: Be sure you are read ahead at all times. You will be called upon in class to comment on readings. Watch all film clips (posted to Blackboard) before the relevant class. Gods of War John Milton, AThe War in Heaven,@ Book VI of Paradise Lost (PDF) Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 2 & 3 Oxford Book of War Poetry: Michael Drayton, ABallad of Agincourt@ Geoffrey Chaucer, AFrom >The Knight=s Tale=@ Richard Lovelace, ATo Lucasta, Going to the Wars@ Keegan, Book of War: Jean Froissart, AThe Battle of Crécy@ Jehan de Wavrin, AA French Knight=s Account of Agincourt@ Scenes from: Henry V (Agincourt); Cromwell Warrior Cultures and the Transition to Soldiering Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 4 & 5 Keegan, Book of War: Father Paul Ragueneau, AAn Attack by Iroquois Warriors@ (Beaver Wars) William Dunbar, ABraddock on the Monogahela@ (French and Indian War) David Crocket, ADavy Crocket@ (frontier fighting) John D. Hunter, ?Captivity Among the Indians@ (Great Plains Wars, 1840s-1880s) Elizabeth Custer, AGeneral Custer@ (Sioux Wars, 1870s) Oxford Book of War Poetry: Robert Southey, AThe Battle of Blenheim@ Thomas Campbell, AHohenlinden@ Lord Byron, ADon Juan@ Scenes from: Kagemusha & Ran (Sengoku Period wars, Japan 1467B1573); Black Robe (Beaver Wars in New France); Last of the Mohicans (French and Indian War) Napoleonic Wars Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 7 & 8 Paul W. Schroeder, ANapoleon=s Foreign Policy as a Criminal Enterprise,@ JMH 1990 (PDF) Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, chapters on Austerlitz (1805, in Vol. I) and Borodino (1812, in Vol. II). Project Guttenberg online text: http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/war_and_peace.leo_tolstoy/toc.html or PDF Keegan, The Book of War: Anna Myers, AThe Revolution Remembered@ Private Wheeler, ALetters of Private Wheeler@ Duke of Wellington, ?Waterloo Dispatch@ (War of the Grand Alliance, 1815) Oxford Book of War Poetry: John Scott (of Amwell), AThe Drum@ William Wordsworth, ANovember, 1806" Adam Mickiewicz, AThe Year 1812" Victor Hugo, ARussia, 1812" Robert Browning, AIncident of the French Camp@ Thomas Hardy, AThe Eve of Waterloo@ Scenes from: War and Peace (Soviet 1967); Waterloo (British 1970); Napoleon (French 2002). American Civil War (1861-1865): Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels (1974) Keegan, Book of War: $ Steven Crane AWar is Kind@ Oxford Book of War Poetry: Herman Melville, AThe Portent,@ ABall=s Bluff,@ AShiloh: A Requiem@ Emily Dickinson, Untitled (starts: AMy portion is Defeat...@) Julia Ward Howe, ABattle Hymn of the Republic@ Alan Tate, AOde to the Confederate Dead@ Robert Lowell, AFor the Union Dead@ Scenes from: Glory; Gettysburg; Cold Mountain (Battle of the Crater); Ken Burn=s The Civil War 19th Century Imperial Wars Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 10 Keegan, The Book of War: Henry Clifford, AClifford in the Crimea@ (Crimean War) W. H. Fitchett, AThe Relief of Lucknow@ (AIndian Mutiny,@ a.k.a. AFirst War of Independence@) C?Isandlwana and Rorke=s Drift@ Four Eyewitness Accounts (Zulu Wars) Colin Campbell, ALetters from Camp@ Oxford Book of War Poetry: Alfred Lord Tennyson, ACharge of the Light Brigade@ Rudyard Kipling, AArithmetic on the Frontier@ and ATommy@ Thomas Hardy, ADrummer Hodge,@ AA Wife in London,@ and AThe Man He Killed@ Scenes from: Four Feathers; Zulu; Mangal Pandey & Junoon (Indian Rising); Breaker Morant (Boer War) World War I, The Allied Experience Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 11 Keegan, Book of War: Sidney Rogerson, ATwelve Days@ (The Somme) E. L. Spears, APrelude to Victory@ (First Marne) Compton MacKenzie, AGallipoli Memoirs@ (Gallipoli campaign, 1915) Ernest Hemingway, ?Wounded@ (Caporetto, Italo-Austrian Front, 1917) John Glub, AA Soldier=s Diary of the Great War@ Robert Graves, excerpt from Goodbye to All That Oxford Book of War Poetry: Rupert Brooke, AThe Dead,@ AThe Soldier@ Herbert Asquith, AThe Volunteer@ John McCrae, AIn Flanders Fields@ William Yeats, AAsked for a War Poem,@ AAn Irish Airman Foresees his Death,@ AReprisals,@ Siegfried Sassoon, AThey,@ AThe Hero,@ ARearguard,@ AThe General,@ AGlory of Women@ Wilfred Owen, AAnthem for a Doomed Youth,@ ADulce et Decorum Est@ Rudyard Kipling, AEpitaphs of the War@ Scenes from: Joyeux Noel (Anglo-French); Passchendaele (Canadian); Un long dimanche de fiançailles (French), Gallipoli and Beneath Hill 60 (Australian) World War I, The German Experience Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 12 Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel (In Stahlgewittern, 1920) Keegan, Book of War: Erwin Rommel, ?Infantry Attacks@ Isaac Babel, ARed Cavalry@ Oxford Book of War Poetry: Isaac Rosenberg, AOn Receiving News of the War,@ AAugust 1914," ABreak of Day in the Trenches,@ ADead Man=s Dump@ Carl Sandburg, AGrass@ Wilfred Owen, AInsensibility,@ AStrange Meeting@ Robert Graves, ARecalling War,@ Edmund Blunden, ATwo Voices,@ AZonnebeke Road,@ AVlamertinghe,@ Scenes from: The Great Dictator, All Quiet on the Western Front; The Lost Battalion World War II, The Western Allies Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 13 Sledge, With the Old Breed Keegan, Book of War: Winston Churchill, ABBC address, May 19, 1940" Studs Terkel, AThe Good War@ Marie-Louise Osmont, ?Normandy Diary@ Ernie Pyle, ABreakout in Normandy@ Oxford Book of War Poetry: Louis Aragon, AThe Lilacs and the Roses@ David Gascoyne, AEcce Homo@ Randall Jarrell, ADeath of the Ball Turret Gunner@ Louis Simpson, ACarentan, O Carentan@ Vernon Scannel, AWalking Wounded@ Scenes from: Indigenes (Algerian); Band of Brothers (American); A Bridge Too Far (Anglo-American); Sorrow and the Pity (French); Big Red One (American); Storming Juno (Canadian) World War II, The Germans Gert Ledig, The Stalin Front (2000). Keegan, Book of War: Alexander Stahlberg, ABounden Diary@ Note: there are THREE Stahlberg segments Peter Cremer, AU-333" Gehr von Sweppenberg, AOn the Other Side of the Hill@ Oxford Book of War Poetry: James Dickey, AThe Firebombing@ Anthony Hecht, AMore light! More light!@ John Stallworthy, ALetter from Berlin@ Scenes from: 1939: Battle of Westerplatte; Das Boot; Stalingrad (1984, German); Cross of Iron; Downfall World War II, The Soviets Nolan, Allure of Battle: Chapter 14 James Winn, AWar Poetry,@ from Gordon Martel, ed., Encyclopedia of War, 2011 (PDF) Konstantin Simonov, AWait for Me@ and other poems (PDF). Scenes from: Stalingrad (Russo-German production, 2003); Russia's War (Russo-British documentary series); Behind Closed Doors, BBC dramatization (2009) of Stalin's wartime policies World War II, The Japanese Yukiko Koshiro,