Narratives of War
ENGL 122NW - Winter 2007, Rita Raley
This course examines twentieth-century narratives of war from the perspective of our contemporary moment. It thus does not aim to be historically comprehensive; instead our reading will be focused on certain questions and themes, including smart war, total war, just war, netwar; spectacle & spectatorship; trauma; mediation; the rhetoric of intervention; models of the enemy; and the reformulation of human rights in the context of the “war on terror.” At least two trajectories will structure our reading and discussions: (1) a shift from second-hand recorded truths (historiography, photography, first-person narration) to the immediacy of immersive media (embedded reporting, the televisual, and simulations); and (2) a shift from the project of representation to information visualization. We will attend to the genre of war literature, but we will also be considering photographs, journalism, documentary and fictional film, media art, games, criticism and theory.
TAs
Ryan Boyd (M 5-5:50; M 6-6:50)
Geoffrey McNeil (T 8-8:50; T 9-9:50)
Yanoula Athanassakis (T 4-4:50; T 7-7:50)
Eric Nebeker (R 8-8:50; R 9-9:50)
Image: Paula Levine, Baghdad <> San Francisco
This course satisfies the GE area G and Writing requirements and counts toward the English department's LCI specialization.
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Rita Raley