This course offers an in-depth look at selected war fiction from the previous 100 years of American history. We’ll focus specifically on four main areas: Ernest Hemingway and World War I, Kurt Vonnegut and World War II, Tim O’Brien and the Vietnam War, and finally, Jonathan Safran Foer and Jess Walter on 9/11 and the War on Terror. Topics will include debates about courage and cowardice, the lingering effects of war trauma, ways that these narratives reinforce or challenge traditional gender expectations, the relationship between history and fiction, media representations of war, and the search for a literary form that can adequately convey the horrors of war. Students will read both historical background material and literary criticism as they work to develop their own interpretations of the novels we study.
Required Books:
Ernest Hemingway
- In Our Time
- The Sun Also Rises
- A Farewell to Arms
Kurt Vonnegut
- Mother Night
- Cat’s Cradle
- Slaughterhouse-Five
Tim O’Brien
- Going After Cacciato
- The Things They Carried
Jonathan Safran Foer
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jess Walter
- The Zero
