How is the aesthetic or style of “realism” conveyed in the text (film, memoir, etc)?
The genre of war: How is the aesthetic or style of “realism” conveyed in the text (film, memoir, etc)? Does the text realistically capture war and combat experience? How would you describe the “tone” of the writing or the film?
The epistemology of war: How does the text lay claim to knowing the “truth” of war? Does the text acknowledge the ways in which even combat experience is mediated and shaped by prior representations of war?
The gender of war: How are gender roles represented in the text? How are men and women (or their absence) depicted, and how might those depictions contribute to certain fictions (ideological messages) of masculinity and femininity?
The rhetoric of war: To what extent could the text be considered a work of propaganda (promoting a one-sided, intentional and unequivocal message)? Is the text invested in such national-cultural myths of America as the City on a Hill (moral superiority), altruistic idealism (social and political superiority) or technological invincibility (military superiority)? Does the text provide some kind of reasoning or rationale for going to war? Is the suffering and sacrifice given justification? Why indeed do we fight?
