In the spring of 2013 I will teach a class titled “The Arts of War.” The course will focus on war literature from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the course theme will be the homecoming and aftermath. Selections from Homer’s Odyssey will get the class started, as will Sophocles’ Philoctetes. We’ll also look at Hemingway’s In Our Time, particularly “Soldier’s Home,” as well as some other poems, stories, and memoirs from the great tradition of war literature. Turning to contemporary texts, we will read the following:
Brian Turner: Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise.
Siobhan Fallon: You Know When the Men Are Gone.
Benjamin Busch: Dust to Dust.
Pat Fountain: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
Kevin Powers: The Yellow Birds.
Toni Morrison: Home.
Hi Pete,
Glad you’re back to blogging. If you like John Steinbeck, he has a book called *Once There Was a War* that collects articles he wrote while a special war correspondent for the *New York Herald Tribune*.
Best wishes,
Chris Brown
Chris–Thanks for the tip; I’ll look for it. I wonder what Steinbeck thought the war signified for the Okies he wrote about in Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men?