First-Year Research Seminar: The Writer in International Conflicts

Semester and Year	SP 2011
Course Number	FIRST-UG719
Section	001
Instructor	Hannah Gurman
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Please note the following courses--- K10.0719, K10.0720, and K10.0722 --- are scheduled on the same day and time and periodically will meet together to discuss common themes on the topic of culture and ideology in the 20th century.

Description

In this course, we will explore how U.S. novelists, journalists, and government officials have used writing to intervene in contemporary international conflicts. What role has writing played in shaping the understanding or outcome of these conflicts? What is the relationship between writing and politics in these texts? How does the position of the writer in these works shed light on problems of rationality, subjectivity, and sympathy in contemporary international conflict? In addition to reading novels, memoirs, and scholarship that responded to or became implicated in the Cold War and Islamist jihad, we will explore the role of human rights journalism in stopping recent genocides, as well as the writings of presidential advisors and speechwriters who helped formulate international policies of the Cold War and the War on Terror. Readings may include Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, Mary McCarthy, George Kennan, Hannah Arendt, and Susan Moeller. These texts will be the focus of several critical essays that students will write over the course of the semester, culminating in a final research paper on a topic selected by the student.

Course Type

First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)