| Unit name | War Stories: Women Writers and Conflict from WWI to 9/11 |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL20043 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Kennedy-Epstein |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
In 1939, Simone Weil wrote that ‘the true hero, the true subject, the center of the Iliad is force,’ and that force ‘is the very centre of human history.’ Writing about the Iliad as a parable for the rise of fascism in Europe, her essay theorizes the centrality of violence in our texts, images, and rhetoric. This unit examines how war is documented and represented in works by 20th- and 21st-century women writers. We will ask, as they do, how far the reproduction of war might lead to desensitization and the continuation of violence, and how far it gives voice to the victims and challenges the mechanisms that cause war. We will explore how representations of war have been used to critique and expose injustice, advocate for peace, incite and condemn violence, draw the boundaries of nation and gender, and collapse the public and private. We will pay particular attention to the contradictory nature of war for women, as a site of both potential liberation and repression. Primary texts studied include fiction, poetry, plays, autobiography, and journalism, and works by writers across the global anglophone world, as we explore how modes of representation change with the realities of war, from the trenches of WWI to drone strikes in Afghanistan.
On successful completion of this unit students will have
(1) developed a detailed knowledge of how women writers document and represent war;
(2) developed a critical understanding of the historical and political circumstances of the 20th-century wars through both primary and secondary sources;
(3) acquired an understanding of major critical approaches;
(4) demonstrated their ability to analyse and compare the different ways war is written about by various authors in transnational contexts;
(5) strengthened their skills in academic writing, argumentation, and evaluation of evidence from primary texts and critical literature.
1 x 2-hour seminar per week.
The 2000 word essay assesses ILOs 1-2 and 4-5. The 3000 word essay assesses all ILOs.
Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth (London: Penguin Classics, 2005)
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dicteé (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)
Carolyn Forché, The Country Between Us (NY: Harper, 1982)
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others (London: Penguin, 2004)
Simone Weil, The Iliad, or the Poem of Force (New York: NYRB Classics, 2005)
Rebecca West, Return of the Soldier (NY: Broadview, 2010)
