Aims and Objectives

By the end of the module, you will be familiar with

• A range of texts, mostly composed in English, which deal with war
• Shared conceptions of war, transmitted through representations of it, in different periods
• The impact of technology, ideology and war itself on the imagination of war

You will be able to

• Interpret texts for what they imply about the nature, justification and value of war
• Evaluate the influence of varied texts on shared imaginings
• Make connections between texts of different kinds, periods and cultures

Module Approach and Structure

The module asks: how was war imagined at different times, and why was it imagined in those ways? The first question can only be answered by reference to a wide range of texts. The second must involve technology, history and political thought.

For instance, changes in the way war was imagined in the eighteenth century can be traced in poems and newspaper articles, and traced back to musket warfare and to commitments to reason, sensibility and liberty. Changes in the way war was imagined in the twentieth century can be traced in movies and newsreels, and traced back to machine technologies and to ideas of democracy.

The module is in four parts. The first three weeks establishes questions and methodology. The second section of four weeks is historical. It considers different kinds of text over time. The main foci at this point are the representations of heroes, enemies and victims, and the conception of war implied by those representations. The third three-week section expands the range of texts by looking at the connections between "factual" and imaginative texts. The final three weeks applies the lessons of the semester to contemporary wars. The case studies we use at that point will depend upon what is happening in the world.

Teaching and Learning

The main mode of teaching and learning is collaborative enquiry. The first three weeks of the module establish questions and methodology. Thereafter, you ask those questions, and apply that methodology yourselves. You do that in class through presentations and discussion, and on your own, through observing, reading and thinking.

Assessment

Class participation (10%) will be judged, as far as possible, on the quality of interventions rather than their frequency or length.

The presentation (20%) will be individual or group, depending on the size of the class. The presentation invites you to prepare and present some of the knowledge content or the module, and to pose questions about it.

The short paper (20%) will be a two-page analysis of a single episode or short text. It will apply the reading frame developed in the first section of the module.

The term paper (50%) is on a subject of your own choosing. It could be a study of a text or group of texts, or it could be a consideration of a more general question about the representation of war. It tests the student's ability to apply the tools used in the module to a subject of his/her own.

The module begins with a lot of short texts and excerpts. They are available online, and listed in the schedule on IVLE.

There are four full and longer texts:

Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War (1990)
Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket (1987)
NUS Museum, Vietnam 1954 – 1975: War Drawings and Posters from the Ambassador Dato’ N Parameswaran Collection
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried (1990)