CORE 390-07B Senior Seminar

Course Syllabus

Fall 2005

Course Title:              War and the Memory of War

Class Schedule:          2/4/6 2:40-3:50 p.m.  QUAD 353

Instructor:                  Nick Hayes

                                    Professor of History and University Chair in Critical Thinking

                                    QUAD 451-A

                                    Tele. 363-2623 Fax 363-3300 or 2514

                                    E-mail:  nhayes@csbsju.edu

Office Hours:             2/4/6 11:20-12:30 and by appointment

As a Senior Seminar for the CORE Curriculum, this course brings together in a capstone experience the skills, knowledge and values you have developed in your four years of coursework in the CORE Curriculum.  The seminar thus emphasizes discussion, research and writing, and critical thinking skills.  What is more, it places a priority on the ethical issues implied in our study of the war experience.

War and the role our memory of war has played in the shaping of the human mind and culture in the twentieth century forms the basic content of the seminar. Our discussion starts with a contemporary issue:  Our recollections of  the events of September 11. Then, we discuss several tragic conflicts from the European and American experience WWI (or “The Great War”), WWII, the Vietnam War, and the Wars of Genocide in Our Time – Yugoslavia and Rwanda.  Our historical narrative ends with a return to the ethical issues of the “war on terrorism” in our own time. Our theme lies in the escalation of total war from the First World War with its devastating military casualties through the subsequent wars that brought massive civilian destruction, genocide and atrocities. Moreover, our emphasis is not on the history of those conflicts but on how those conflicts shaped the memories and hence the political cultures of their times.  How, in short, how have Americans and Europeans come to grips with the reality of total war and its inhumanity in the history of their civilization over the past century?  How do we reconcile our values with ethical issues brought forward in these tragic histories?  How has our recollection of the war experience shaped the political culture of our times?

Requirements/Expectations.  Your basic requirements for the seminar will be:

· a major research paper (50%);

·  an oral presentation of your research interest (20%),;

· your participation in a group presentation and discussion of one of the six assigned texts (10%);

· peer reaction papers (10%);

· a short essay on the war on terrorism (10%)..

Readings.   The following texts provide the basic readings and are to be purchased for this course:

            Arundhati Roy.  Power Politics.

            Ernest Hemingway.  A Farewell to Arms.

            Stephen Ambrose.  Citizen Soldiers.

            Wolfgang Borchert.  The Man Outside.

            Tim O’Brien.  The Things They Carried.

            Phillip Gourevitch, We Regret to Inform You

In addition, there will be readings on library reserve and class handouts to supplement class topics.

Films.  In keeping with the theme of the role of war in our cultural memory, we will devote considerable time to the representation of war in film. During the seminar, we will view and discuss five films on video.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1934)

Europa! Europa! (1992)

            The Deerhunter (1975)

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Research Project/Paper. For your research project, you will prepare a major essay and provide an oral presentation on a topic of your choice.  The essay should be approximately fifteen pages, double spaced word-processed text and must have proper footnotes and a selected bibliography.

In your project, you will emphasize:

· A theoretical or disciplinary perspective based on your major field or main area of interest;

· Primary sources or documents that record a particular experience of war;

· An analysis of how your subject interprets the war experience;

· The placement of this interpretation in the context of the political cultures that were fashioned out of the war experience;

· A reflection on the ethical issues represented by this interpretation.

It is important to start on your project as early as possible.  You are required to complete the project in four steps:

· Research proposal due (9/22)

· Rough draft due (10/20);

· Oral presentations to be scheduled in classes (11/30-12/12 each oral presentation will be organized within a panel discussion of three to four presenters, be limited to approximately fifteen to twenty minutes per participant, and include the facilitation of student/peer discussion.

· Final copy due (12/14).

File/sensem 05 syllabus