View source for 2007-08 AM "A visual, tactile, olfactory blot. An indelible vulgarity": The Vietnam War in Film and Fiction

* '''Time:''' [[User:Christina Meyer|Tue 12-14]]
* '''Place:''' [[User:Christina Meyer|A14 0-31]]
* '''Contact:''' [[User:Christina Meyer|Christina Meyer]]

<br>
==Comment==
This course will provide a survey of Vietnam War literature. Likely authors include: Bao Ninh, Tim O'Brien, Bobbie Ann Mason, Robert Olen Butler, Stephen Wright, William Ehrhart. Extensive class discussions of primary texts will be the norm (supported by secondary readings). We will also be dealing with constructions of filmic narratives, with particular emphasis on ''Jacob's Ladder'' and ''Apocalypse Now''. 

The course is organized around, but not limited to, a number of key books and figures, and secondary studies on Vietnam War literature. We will adopt an interpretive method that combines literary, cultural, and psychological approaches. In addition to literary readings, the syllabus will thus include a variety of historical materials and a range of theoretical viewpoints.  

Starting on: 23.10. 2007 

Prerequisites for certificate: regular attendance, active participation, in-class oral presentation, periodic short written homework, term paper. 

Please purchase Tim O'Brien, ''In the Lake of the Woods'', and Bao Ninh's ''The Sorrow of War'' (Riverhead). Additional material will be made available in a reader and/or in the library (reserve shelf).



==Syllabus==
'''Part I: Intro – Approaches to the War in Vietnam'''

Oct 23, 2007	
            Organization, Why Are We in Vietnam? (Re)-Opening a “Wound” Called Vietnam

Oct 30, 2007			
            History: The Indochina Wars
            Presentation: “Vietnam from 1954-1975”


'''Part II: Filmic Narratives'''

Nov. 6, 2007			
            Filming the War in Vietnam
            Presentation: “Vietnam in the Movies: (Right Wing) Revisionism, and ‘Realistic’ 
            Versions of the Vietnam War in American Movies?”

Nov. 13, 2007		
            ''Apocalypse Now'' and American Imperialism (FILM SCREENING; excerpts)
            Text: Joseph Conrad, ''Heart of Darkness'' (excerpts)
            Written Assignment I: Essay (topic will be distributed in class)

Nov. 20, 2007		
            FILM SCREENING: ''Jacob’s Ladder''
            ATTENTION: session starts at 12h sharp
            Written Assignment II: Summary of Jacob’s Ladder


'''Part III: Representations of the War in Vietnam (Prose Texts)'''

Nov. 27, 2007		
            The (Psychological) Scars of the War
            Presentation: “Psychological Trauma”

Dec. 4, 2007			
            Tim O'Brien, ''In the Lake of the Woods''
            Presentation: Tim O’Brien: Soldier/ Writer

Dec. 11, 2007		
            Tim O'Brien, ''In the Lake of the Woods'', cont’d

Dec. 18, 2007		
            Tim O'Brien, ''In the Lake of the Woods'', cont’d


CHRISTMAS BREAK


Jan. 8, 2008			
            The Vietnam Trauma in ''The Sorrow of War''
            Presentation: “Story and Plot in Bao Ninh’s Novel”

Jan. 15, 2008		
            Bao Ninh, ''The Sorrow of War'', cont’d
				
Jan. 22, 2008		
            Bao Ninh, ''The Sorrow of War'', cont’d

Jan. 29, 2008		
            ''The Sorrow of War'', and ''In the Lake of the Woods'': Postmodern Novels?
            Texts (group work): 1) Lucas Carpenter; 2) Steven Liparulo; 3) Michael Bibby; 4) 
            Jerome Klinkowitz (see below)

Febr. 5, 2008			
            (Not) Closing the Wound(s)
            Round-up	





==Reading Requirements==
*Bao Ninh. ''The Sorrow of War''. Trans. Phan Thanh Hao. Ed. Frank Palmos. New York: Riverhead Books, 1993.

*Bibby, Michael, ed. ''The Vietnam War and Postmodernity''. Amherst, MA: UMass P, 2000. (excerpts)

*Carpenter, Lucas. “’It Don’t Mean Nothing’: Vietnam War Fiction and Postmodernism.” Col''lege Literature'' 30.2 (2003): 30-50.

*Conrad, Joseph, ''Heart of Darkness''. Reprint. London et al.: Penguin, 1995.

*Liparulo, Steven P. “’Incense and Ashes’: The Postmodern Work of Refutation in Three Vietnam War Novels.” ''War, Literature & the Arts'' 15.1&2 (2002): 71-94.

*Klinkowitz, Jerome. “Writing Under Fire: Postmodern Fiction and the Vietnam War.” ''Postmodern Fiction: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide''. Ed. Larry McCafferty. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1986. 79-92.

*O’Brien, Tim. ''In the Lake of the Woods''. 1994. New York et al.: Penguin, 1995.

<br>
Texts are available at “Wersig” (copy shop, Ammerländer Heerstr. 108). Reading suggestions and additional texts (for oral presentations) will be made available in the course reader on the reserve shelf in the library. Further texts will be distributed in class, and/or will be made available in the library.


==Reading Suggestions==
*Anderson, David L., ed. ''Facing My Lai: Moving Beyond the Massacre''. Lawrence, Kansas: UP of Kansas, 1998.

*Beidler, Philip D. ''American Literature and the Experience of Vietnam''. Athens, GA: U of Georgia P, 1982. (esp. chapter 2: “American Literature: Prophecy and Context”) 

*Caruth, Cathy, ed. ''Trauma: Explorations in Memory''. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1995.

*Christopher, Renny. ''The Viet Nam War/The American War: Images and Representations in Euro-American and Vietnamese Exile Narratives''. Amherst: UMass P, 1995.

*Gilman, Owen W., and Lorrie Smith, eds. ''America Rediscovered: Critical Essays on Literature and Film of the Vietnam War''. New York: Garland, 1990.

*Hixson, Walter L., ed. ''The United States and the Vietnam War''. 6 vols. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc, 2000.

*Hölbling, Walter. ''Fiktionen vom Krieg im neueren amerikanischen Roman''. Tübinger Beiträge zur Anglistik 10. Tübingen: G. Narr, 1987.

*Jeffords, Susan. ''The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War''. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989.

*Limon, John. ''Writing After War: American War Fiction from Realism to Postmodernism''. New York & Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994.

*Myers, Thomas. “Dispatches from Ghost Country: The Vietnam Veteran in Recent American Fiction.” ''Genre'' 21.4 (Winter 1988): 409-428.

*Nguyen Can Huy and Laurel Kendall, eds. Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind, and Spirit. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: U of California P, 2003.

*Rowe, John Carlos, and Rick Berg, eds. ''The Vietnam War and American Culture''. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. (esp.: “Eyewitness: Documentary Styles in the American Representations of Vietnam,” pp. 148-174)

*Shay, Jonathan, ''Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character''. New York et al.: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

*Tal, Kalí. ''Worlds of Hurt: Reading the Literatures of Trauma''. Cambridge, England & New York: Cambridge UP, 1996.

*Vietnam Veterans Against the War. ''The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes''. Boston: Beacon, 1972.

*Wimmer, Adi. “Die Transzendierung bloßer Referentialität als Akt der Leserbeteiligung: Zum Aspekt der Lückenhaftigkeit in der US-amerikanischen Vietnamkriegsliteratur.“ ''Zeitschrift f. Anglistik und Amerikanistik'' 34.4 (1986): 325-342.

*Wright, Stephen. ''Meditations in Green''. London: Abacus, 1983.


[[Category:Aufbaumodul]]
[[Category:Winter 2007-2008|2008-1]]