// War Literature

Waltz with Bashir is a groundbreaking film in many ways- the animation is obviously a strategic choice, the intense impact of the first scene sets the stage for the anxiety ridden milieu for the next hour and a half, the act of killing animals also echoes throughout, allowing the audience to realize the effects of war cover all bases, not just human casualties. One reoccurring phrase, however, rings prominent, even after two weeks of having viewed the film. Whenever they are on the field and they have to start shooting, the commander often says “Shoot! Start shooting!” and the soldiers reply “at what?” The commander then exclaims “How should I know? Just shoot!”
The manner in which this very phrase is repeated throughout the film exemplifies the utter and total chaos of war. They don’t even know what they’re shooting at sometimes, they just know they have to shoot. At what? At other soldiers? At civilians? They don’t know. When the soldier replies “How should I know? Just shoot!” it is actually almost humorous. The sincere innocence and youth of every soldier is hidden beneath their uniforms and tough exteriors but the bottom line is that no one is even sure why there has to be a war. Can’t anything be resolved without the colossal effect that war has on absolutely everything?
This is a revolutionary momentous film because it addresses and depicts so many aspects of war, without narrowing its focus on just one. The up-close and personal interviews with each soldier are poignant, as each one still has their own cross to bear. One guy is haunted by reoccurring nightmares years after the war took place, another suppresses all memories, and a third character suffers from guilt and shame. The audience begins to empathize with and even like the characters- their soft-spoken manner during the retellings resonates against the overpowering chaos of the animations.

For my final project, I will explore the relationship between religiously segregated countries in the middle east and war. I will focus on the Bosnian civil war and the Lebanon war of the 70s and 80s. Religion was a catalyst in both of these conflicts. It seems that in countries where there is tension between two religious groups, war often occurs.

Is there a direct relationship between religious segregation in these countries and the outbreak of war? Does the great role religon plays in the politics of these countries bear on the fact that these wars occur? Does the religiously charged nature of these wars affect the way wars are carried out (i.e. civilian involvement, concentration camps, ethnic cleansing)? I will explore these questions in my paper.

The class material I will use are the book S. and the movie Waltz With Bashir. These two works give great insight into the religious conflict and especially civilian involvement.

My working bibliography is still being worked on… :-/

soon to follow

For the final project I have decided to research the lifestyles lived by soldiers in Vietnam, while at battle and when off duty. I feel this is better than my original idea of putting on a puppet show of episode 13 from Gravities Rainbow.  I plan on focusing more on their lifestyles while off duty. Discussing how soldiers coped with it, how it affected them there, and when they returned home. A lot of drug abuse took place in Vietnam by US soldiers I plan on writing about if that helped their moral of the war, ruined it, made them never want to come home, or kept rehab employees here very busy. I also would like to focus on other illegal acts which took place there such as prostitution, and corruption. So far for sources, I plan on using Tim O’ Brien’s  The things they carried, Graham Green’s The Quiet American, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and The Deer Hunter.

For my final project I have opted to do a drawing of what S. looked like in three different stages of her life. I was really intrigued by the novels portrayal of her life and how she changed so much due to the events that occurred. The three images that I would draw of her would be done on something known as Vellum paper; a paper that is translucent (different from transparent), which allows for images to be seen but not completely when the paper is layered. The reason behind this idea is so that when I draw S. (pre-war), I can then layer S. (during-war) on top and then place S. (after-war) as the final top layer. After all these layers are placed on top of each other (with post-war being the final layer) the pre-war S. would basically be a ghost image, just like the real S. in the story.

This concept of layered vellum is meant to convey the idea of how war detroys a person’s identity and changes them forever. The pre-war self is almost non-existent, merely a ghost of what one used to be; it is still there but as a memory. The three images will be similar with minor changes in S.’s face to show how she has evolved to fit and survive her circumstances.

I decided to write about how sports can be considered an allegory for war, specifically baseball. An allegory is defined as “a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another,” (-dictionary.com.) In other words, something that can be used to represent something else. In this case, a baseball game can be seen as a war, with each inning being its own battle. The players are the soldiers, and the coaches are the commanders. The first sports were the olympics in Greece, which ceased all struggles between states until the games were over. Men transferred their aggression towards each other in war into games. The Olympics also display nationalism, in that each player represented his home country. This applies to war in that during war, countries display an extra sense of pride and nationalism, just like how fans support and take pride in displaying their favorite teams colors.

I plan to use Delillo’s introduction of Underworld, as well as Clausowitz and Shin Tzu in regards to the Art of War, and war strategies. I also plan on using Freud to interpret the psyches of the players and fans, and how similar they are to soldiers and civilians in war. I also plan on interviewing a few marines to get their point of view on war, on whether or not they view it as a “game.”

For my final paper I will be focusing on nazi germany vs the allied powers during world war 2. The subject matter will be the  reasons for war and the technology that was brought about during the war and after it. I feel world war 2 is the most analyzed piece of history due to the many subjects that surround it, the inhumanity of war, post war nuclear technology and overall a war fought in three different continents.

My bibliography is still in the works and to be posted shortly.

For my research paper, instead of focusing on one conflict in general, I’m choosing to focus on the region of the middle east and its numerous conflicts over the last decade.  My abstract will be to focus on media wars and how they pertain to the transparancy or lack of it when it comes to war, the geopolitical responses to media of war, and the result of extreme media coverage versus sparse coverage.

For example, CNN became an overnight sensation because of the Gulf War.  24 hour news coverage of the war, and we couldn’t get enough of it.  Why?  It is also said that the Gulf War never happened exactly for this reason; where we are so inundated with this media of war, it was all that really happened in the brief conflict, an exaggeration of reality framed and timed for our viewership.

Second, how many of you knew that 1200 Palestinians died during the Gaza War? These are civilians, including 400 children, 100 women, 100 elderly.  How many of you knew that the Israeli’s bombed four schools and an agency run by the UN, 16 hospitals, 16 ambulances, the latter of which is a war crime?

How many of you knew there was a Gaza War in the first place?  The lack of media coverage (as well as the Lebanese civil war of Waltz With Bashir) of this war and others in the region almost happen under the nose of the global community, but why is that?

Working Bibliography to be addended.

I am interested in exploring the relationships that are formed during war between soldiers – is there really a brotherhood that is born amidst all the atrocities, the gruesome killings, and chaos?  How does an individual change in terms of his need for companionship as a war progresses?  It seems like different stages of war produce different effects and challenges on one’s psychological health and thus, creating different types of relationships in the military.  And so, I am very tempted to write about different wars – for each one has its own dynamics that ultimately spark dissimilarities (as well as similarities) in the relationships of war.  For my final paper, my primary source will be Jarhead and the Korean film “Tae Guk Gi” which literally translates to the Korean flag.  Tae Guk Gi is about the civilian and the war front struggle in South Korea in 1950 when North Korea invaded them.  I feel that these two movies explore different dimensions of war and the unity or lack of is very interestingly displayed.  I might also derive supporting references from Paths of Glory but that will have to depend on the direction of this paper as I actually write it.   It might be a bad venture to write on so many different wars.

Bibliography in the Making

“Bending the Rules: Morality in the Modern World from Relationships to Politics and War”

“Relationship of War Zone Coping Strategies to Long Term General Life Adjustment Among Vietnam Veterans: Combat Exposure as a Moderate Variable”

Suvak, Michael K.; Vogt, Dawne S.; Savarese, Vincent W.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (0146-1672)
July 2002. Vol.28,Iss.7;p.974-85

For my research paper, I will focus on the Bosnian war and how it affected the lives of women living during that time. I will mainly focus on rape and the hardships that these women had to go through. My essay will derive from the book S.: A Novel about the Balkans by Slavenka Draculic that we read in class as well as another central book or movie, which I have not decided on yet and 3 scholarly articles.

In my essay, I will aim to expose all the cruelties that women went through during the Bosnian war. It will center around innocent civilian women who was dragged into the face of war, not to fight, but rather for men to humiliate them. I will talk about how these women were dragged into the situation and help us to really see and understand how this changed their lives completely. Also, I will include specific examples from individuals and everything that they went through as well as the camps in which they were kept in.

Bibliography

“Weapon Of War.” New Internationalist. 3 June 1993. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.newint.org/features/1993/06/05/rape/>.

Gutman, Roy. “Mass Rape of Bosnian Muslim Women « How Bosnian and Balkan Wars Started Facts Timeline History Crimes.” How Bosnian and Balkan Wars Started Facts Timeline History Crimes. 19 Apr. 1993. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://thebosnianwarfactstimelinehistorygenocidecriminals.wordpress.com/2006/11/30/mass-rape-of-bosnian-muslim-women/>.

Olujic, Maria B. “Women, Rape, and War: The Continued Trauma of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Croatia.” Anthropology of East Europe Review. 24 Dec. 1996. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://condor.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/aeer13_1/Olujic.html>.

Drakulic, Slavenka. S.: A Novel about the Balkans. 1st ed. United States of America: Penguin Group USA, 2001. Print.