Course description:
The Great War is now considered to be the first phase of a 30 year conflict. Some scholars even argue that World War I ended with the fall of the Soviet Empire. This may be an extreme interpretation, but it takes no hyperbole to say that the Great War changed Western culture and its subsequent history forevermore.  In this conflict where at least 10 million died, nothing escaped unscathed; not beliefs, values, literature, politics, or families. As World War I veterans pass from the stage, the impact of their actions remains strong with us today.  It is hard to imagine Eliot, Hemingway, or Fitzgerald; the “Roaring Twenties” or the Great Depression; and Fascism and Communism without the war. According to Paul Fussell, the dominant characteristic of the Great War was satire and irony--the absurdity of almost every aspect of daily life in the trenches.  In this course we will attempt to explore these issues through readings about the war itself and in the memoirs and poetry of some of its most literary participants.
 
 

Course requirements:
Class participation, 10%; Book review (2-3 pages) and class presentation, 30%; Final paper, (12-15 pages), 60%.  Book(s) review will be an analysis of a work–fiction, poetry, drama, biography, or autobiography–concerning World War I, which is then presented to the class. Please be open to the connections among the authors, the war, and the present. The final paper should explore in depth any topic related to the war, focused on the experiences of those who lived it or how it is remembered today. Preferably the subject will have been covered (or at least touched upon) in class, although you may approach the topic through the use of readings not used in class.
 

Schedule of Classes:
Sept. 8: Introduction; "How did we get into this mess, anyway"

Sept. 15: The Guns of August
  Gilbert, Chaps. 1-5; Sassoon, Parts 1-8; Graves, Chaps.,
   1-9, Begin reading Owen and Higonnet.

Sept. 22: The Kitchener Armies Form
  Gilbert, 6-10; Sassoon, 9-10, 1; Graves, 10-11.

Sept. 29: The first World War
  Gilbert, 11-15; Fussell, 1;

Oct. 13: Trench Life
  Gilbert, 16-19; Graves, 12-14; Sassoon, 2-3; Fussell, 2.

Oct. 20: The weapons and strain of Trench Life
  Gilbert, 19-21; Fussell, 3.
 
 

Oct. 27: Battle
  Gilbert, 22-25; Graves, 15; Sassoon, 4-8;

Nov. 3: Into Rest and Home Leave
  Gilbert, 26-28; Graves, 16-17; Fussell, 4; Sassoon, 9-10.

Nov. 10: "The bloody staff and the damned civilians"
  Graves, 20-23; Fussell, 5-6; Sassoon 1-2.

Nov. 17: Exhaustion
  Fussell, 7-8; Sassoon, 3-4; Graves, 24-26;

Nov. 24: Victory and Defeat
  Graves, 25-32; O’Shea, 1-4

Dec. 1: Pain Everlasting--After the war
  Fussell, 9; O’Shea, 5-7

Dec. 8: Is it Over Yet?  Conclusion, Final paper due.

Some Suggested Readings for the Report:
The Soldiers' Tale, Samuel Hynes (A great source for war memoirs.)
Undertones Of War, Edmund Blunden
A Subaltern on the Somme, Max Plowman (Mark Seven)
Toward the Flame, Hervey Allen
Memoirs of War, Marc Bloch
Testament of Youth, Vera Britain
The Storm of Steel, Ernst Junger
Eye Deep in Hell, John Ellis
Death’s Men: Soldiers of the Great War, Denis Winter
Haig’s Command: A Reassessment, Denis Winter
The Real War, BH Liddell Hart
The Donkeys, Alan Clark
The First Day of the Somme, Martin Middlebrook
In Flanders' Fields, Leon Wolff
Three Soldiers, John Dos Passo
Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, Pat Barker