home

=Literature of War Home Page=

Literature of War is an English elective that will take you through an exploration of wars that have altered the world and our society. The course will focus on some the United States’ major conflicts in the twentieth century. Beginning with Remarque’s famous WWI novel //All Quiet on the Western Front//, we will focus on the “ordinary soldier”. Also, Joseph Heller's //Catch-22// and Tim O'Brien's //The Things They Carried// are novels that will delve inside the minds of soldiers and search for the meaning of war. We will conclude the term with Ishmael Beah's //A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier//, which is a novel told from the perspective of a Sierra Leonean soldier and how the war changed his childhood and perspective on life. If there is time at the end of the term, we will try to study the Gulf War and today’s War on Terrorism.

I expect everyone to stay on top of the reading and to contribute to the class discussions regularly. Writing is a large component of the course. You will be asked to write an essay for each text along with shorter writing assignments to supplement the reading. There will also be a variety of quizzes and homework assignments. As always, please be on time and respect the class. You are all seniors, so I should not have to review classroom rules and procedures.