Dr. Sara D. Schotland
Syllabus HONR 209W
Spring 2013
War Stories: Examining the War Experience through Personal Narratives, Fiction, and
Film
This course examines the experience of war by from the perspective of the soldier, his or her
family, veterans, and prisoners. We will read fictional works and personal narratives, and watch
documentary films and Hollywood movies, dating from the Civil War up to and including the
War in Iraq. Through these stories we will examine how soldiers cope with the challenges of
war, including the “fog” of the battlefield; tests of personal courage; fear of death and injury; the
role of peer bonding; survivor guilt; and post-traumatic stress disorder. We will examine moral
questions that arise for soldiers and commanders. We will look at the challenges of war from the
perspective of families “on the home front” and the difficulties that veterans face in reentry into
civilian life. We will consider how the experience of war may differ for women soldiers and
veterans. We will also consider the enemy’s “war stories,” including narratives that convey the
experiences of German and Japanese soldiers. We will gain an appreciation of significant
differences in how specific wars are portrayed given the perspective and rhetorical agenda of
authors and producers.
Course Goals
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Analyze how literature and films reflect and also shape public attitudes toward war,
peace, and foreign policy initiatives.
Analyze how literature and films convey to the public the true impact of war—casualties
to soldiers, impact on civilians, potential for life-altering effects on returning veterans.
Analyze the role of personal narratives in conveying the combat experience—both the
effect on the civilian audience and the therapeutic effect on the veteran narrator.
Understand how representations of war in film and literature contribute to mythmaking and
truth-telling about war.
Investigate the different ways that particular wars (e.g., WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam,
the Gulf War, the Iraq War) are portrayed in literature and film.
Investigate the experience of African American, Asian-American, and women soldiers
based on their personal narratives
Develop skills in analyzing rhetoric in literature and film.
Develop skills in written expression and writing an expository essay.
Schedules of Readings, Class Meetings, and On-Line Sessions

Introduction; War and Courage
Jan. 24
o Read: Letter from a Civil War soldier
www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/ballou_letter.html
o Read O’Brien,“The Things They Carried” from The Things They Carried
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Cannon Fodder: World War I
Jan. 29
o Read: Poetry of Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon (ELMS)
o Read: All Quiet on the Western Front (chapters 1 though 4)
o Film in class: Gallipoli
Jan. 31
o Read: All Quiet on the Western Front (chapters 5 through 8)
o Film in class: All Quiet on the Western Front
Feb. 5
o Read: All Quiet on the Western Front (chapters 9 to end)
o Film in class: All Quiet on the Western Front
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Our World War II
Feb. 7
o Read personal narratives
 http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dday2.htm
 http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dunkirk.htm
 http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitz.htm
o Read: Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five (chapters 1 through 3)
o Film in class: Saving Private Ryan
Feb. 12
o Read: Slaughter House Five (chapters 4 through 6)
Feb. 14
o Read: Slaughter House Five (chapter 7 to end)
o Film in class: Flags of our Fathers
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Short Essay Due
Feb. 19
o In class: Discussion of student essays
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Their World War II
Feb. 21
o Read: Buruma Wages of Guilt (excerpts on ELMS)
o Film in class: Das Boot
o Individual student presentations (2)
Feb. 26
o Read: Cook, Japan at War (excerpts on ELMS, Part I)
o Read: Kuwahara and Allred, Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot’s Own Spectacular
Story (excerpts on ELMS)
o Film in class: Letters from Iwo Jima
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Concentration Camps
Feb. 28
o Read: Levi, Survival at Auschwitz (excerpts on ELMS)
o Watch in advance of class: Three Who Came Home (Agnes Newton’s
confinement in WW II camp)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI1V6FQAp2s
o Individual student presentations (2)
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Home Front
Mar. 5
o Read: Fallon, Read “You Know When the Men are Gone”; “Gold Star” from
You Know When the Men are Gone (ELMS)
o Film in class: Mrs. Miniver
o Individual student presentations (2)
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The African American experience
Mar. 7
o Read: Terry, Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War (excerpts on ELMS)
o Film in class: Glory
o Individual student presentations (2)
Mar. 12
o Read: Personal narratives: African American Veterans (ELMS)
o Read: Tuskegee Airmen’s personal narratives
http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/indexes/specialtopics.html
o Film in class: Tuskegee Airmen
o Individual student presentations (2)
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Vietnam
Mar. 14
o Read: Caputo, Rumor of War (excerpts on ELMS)
o Film in class: Platoon
o Individual student presentations (2)
No class Spring Break Mar. 19 and 21
Mar. 26
o Read: Shakespeare, Henry V (excerpts on ELMS)
o Watch in advance of class: Mylai.mpg YouTube
o Film in class Henry V
 Branaugh’s productions of Henry V-war scenes as commentaries on
WWII and Vietnam War
o Individual student presentations (2)
Mar. 28
o Read: Herr, Dispatches (excerpts on ELMS)
o Film in Class: Full Metal Jacket
o Individual student presentations (2)
April 2
o Read O’ Brien, “How to Tell a True War Story” from The Things They Carried
o Film in class: Full Metal Jacket, cont.
o In class: Individual student presentations (2)
April 4
o Read O’Brien, “The Man I Killed” and “Speaking of Courage” from The Things
They Carried
o Film in class: Fog of War video.google.com/videoplay?docid...
o Individual student presentations (2)
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Media in War; Conscientious Objection
April 9
o Read: Remaining War Poetry (ELMS)
o Watch in advance of class: Control Room (documentary about Al Jazeera and its
relations with CENTCOM)
o Film in class: Soldiers of Conscience
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Women in combat
April 11
o Read Blair, Hesitation Kills: A Female Marine Officer’s Combat Experience in Iraq
(excerpts on ELMS)
o Individual student presentations (2)
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The War in Iraq
April 16
o Listen in advance of class: Soldiers’ narratives from Iraq In class: Five Veterans’
Narratives “Dear Home Front” New Yorker (June 2006)
http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2006/06/12/060612_warletters
o Individual student presentations (2)
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Veteran Re-entry
April 18
o Read: Holmstedt, The Girls Come Marching Home: Stories of Women Warriors
Returning from the War in Iraq (excerpts on ELMS)
o Watch in advance of class: Best Years of Our Lives
o Film in class: Born on the Fourth of July
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Wounded Warriors from Iraq
April 23
o Watch in advance of class: Iraq veterans: PTSD (YouTube-several presentations)
o War on Many Fronts: African American Veterans with PTSD US Dep’t of
Veterans Affairs http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/videos/african-american-vetsptsd.asp
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Inhumanity of War; Human Rights in Peril
April 25
o Read: Cook, Japan at War (excerpts on ELMS, Part two)
o Watch in advance of class: Abu Ghraib (YouTube)
o Film in class: Winter Soldier
May 30
o Read: Articles on Ethics of Torture in military context (ELMS)
o Human Rights Watch, “Torture in Iraq,” New York Review of Books, 52:17,
November 3, 2005. Internet: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18414
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Student Presentations of final projects
May 2
May 7
May 9
Class Meeting Times
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 am -12:15 pm
ENGR 1108
Texts Required to be Purchased
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Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (Dell 1991) ISBN 978-0440180296
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (Ballantine Mass Market 1987)
ISBN 978-0449213940
Ken O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (Houghton Mifflin 2009) ISBN 978-0618706419
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Course Requirements and Policies
Assignments
Students are expected to attend class regularly and will be graded in part on the quality of class
participation.
Students are asked to prepare (a) one short essay (four double spaced pages), (b) an individual
ten minute presentation to the class on rhetoric in film, and (c) a final power point presentation
or, optionally, a term paper or work of fiction of twelve-fifteen pages. The final paper or project
will be due at the end of the course.
Grades will be determined as follows: 20% class participation, including course blog; 20% short
essay, 20% individual presentation, 40% final paper or project.
Short essay based on personal narratives or short story addressing war experience: Each
student will write a short essay (approximately 1200 words) based either on a personal narrative
or, alternatively, on a short story related to the themes of this course. While students have free
choice of topics I will provide optional prompts for those who would like suggestions. I will
provide a more detailed list of potential resources but these will include:
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Personal narratives
o Interview with veterans
o Oral History websites,eg
http://www.loc.gov/vets/ (Library of Congress Veterans History Project) (WWI,
WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf)
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/war.html (University of
Washington World War II websites)
http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/indexes/conflictindex_vietnam.html (Rutgers
oral history website (Korea, Vietnam, and WWII; Tuskegee and POW topics)
Essay on a short story or stories about war
o http://www.shortstoryarchive.com/war_stories.html
Presentation on War Film: Each student will make an oral presentation analyzing war rhetoric in
film. Students will typically use power point; however, content is the goal here and it is not
necessary that power points be elaborate. The topics and film choices below are illustrative and
students may substitute other relevant documentaries or Hollywood films.
 World War II propaganda films, eg. Midway, Air Force, Destination Tokyo, Flying Tigers,
Guadalcanal Diary, Objective, Burma!, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and Wake Island
 World War II Retrospective films, e.g.“True Whispers: The Story of the Navajo Code
Breakers;” “Valor with Honor” (442 Division-Asian Americans)
 Vietnam-Hollywood films, eg Deer Hunter, Heaven and Earth, Hurt Locker
 Vietnam documentary films, Child of War/Woman of Peace
 Wounded veteran films, eg Forrest Gump, Johnny Got His Gun, Coming Home
Students should sign up on discussion board to select presentation dates for their individual
presentation and their final project
Office Hours
Before and after class or please arrange an appointment by email: schotlan@umd.edu.
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