The Lonely Desolation of the Soul: War and the Individual in Memoir and Popular Literature
As the West capitalized upon the advantages accrued through the gunpowder revolution, warfare began to undergo both subtle and drastic shifts. As the social transformative effects of modernization Nationalism, Libertarianism, Industrialization, Urbanization affected the basic character of Western society, so too did warfare change. On some levels these processes were slow tactics, for example, followed the basic parameters established in the 1600s well into the Nineteenth Century. Yet other changes including conscription, nationalist ideology, and technological change exerted dramatic shifts in the pre-existing paradigm. By 1914, however, the weight of these many transformative forces overwhelmed not only how war was waged and perceived by the general public; it overturned the very bedrock of Western perceptions of self and community.
As this units primary readings highlight, the nineteenth century saw the birth of the literate society. With primary education becoming more prevalent across class boundaries, more and more individuals acquired basic skills in reading and writing, fueling in turn the growth of the literate middle class. Literature in turn captured the sense of transformative changes that were being experienced across society. This is particularly true of two of the assignment readings Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage and Robert Graves Good-bye to All That. And while the third Audie Murphys memoir To Hell and Back is a sanitized memoir of his personal experiences during the Second World War, it also stands out as an overlooked classic account of the intimate connections between war and sanity.
So this units assignment is a little different in scope and purpose. Since one of the main purposes of this week is to introduce you to the influence of history on literature (and vice versa), you will in essence be completing a contextualization literary exercise. In short, you will be writing a comparative book review. Thus, in a minimum of 2,500 words, you will compare how the three books address the issues posed above. Your assignment should not be a mere encapsulation of the plot elements and character development in each book, completed in turn. An ideal assignment should address the question of transformative change over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and consider how each account attempts to make each of its subjects more accessible to the reading public.
In addition to the novels and memoir, you should use the other course readings (including the excerpts from John Keegans Face of Battle and Michael C.C. Adams Living Hell). As always you may employ outside sources as well though remember: NO WIKIS!!!
