The Vietnam War in Literature and Film
The Vietnam War was not only waged by soldiers on the battlefield. Long after the fall of Saigon in 1975, traumatic memories haunted civilians and veterans whose lives were irrevocably changed. The Vietnam Was has had an enduring effect and contentious national legacy, which still shapes military policy, political debates, and the way American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been represented in journalism, literature, and film. This course explores the creative outpouring of responses to the Vietnam War in literature and film, asking how artisitsand filmmakers represented experiences on the battlefield and the home front, how they fought symbolic battles over the interpretation and memory of the war, how they sought consolation for unfathomable losses, and how they produced a legacy for future generations.
Books and films include The Quiet American; Dispatches, The Deer Hunter, Born on the Fourth of July; Apocalypse Now; Platoon; The Sorrow of War; Full Metal Jacket; Dien Cau Dau; The Things They Carried; When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.
The novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen will visit our class, and we will read his highly acclaimed new novel, The Sympathizer.
Recitations with assigned TA's please see below for office assignments and contact information.
English 102.405 F 12-1:00 pm with Aaron Bartels-Swindells, FBH 238, aarb@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.406 F 12-1:00 pm with Dana Cypress, FBH 324, dcypress@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.407 F 12-1:00 pm with Tajah Ebram, FBH 340, tebram@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.408 F 12-1:00 pm with Eve Eure, FBH 218, eveeure@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.409 F 12-1:00 pm with Anna Johnson, FBH 331, annajohn@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.410 F 12-1:00 pm with Jess Shollenberger, FBH 340, jsholl@sas.upenn.edu
English 102.411 F 12-1:00 pm with Clint Williamson, FBH 331, wclint@sas.upenn.edu