Schedule

Here’s a preview of our schedule. You’re also welcome to check out a preview of our key readings. More details, along with a complete reading list, will be given to participants before the seminar.

We will meet each weekday from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Afternoons will be devoted to individual research and study.

Each participant will meet with the co-directors during the first two weeks to discuss final project research and development, and the co-directors will be available during afternoons throughout the seminar for additional individual meetings.

Our pedagogy consultant will be available to meet with participants during four brown-bag luncheons and by appointment throughout the seminar.

Week One

Monday, July 8

Introduction to Seminar: Interdisciplinarity, History, and Literature

With what questions and tools do historians and literary scholars approach their work?
What does an interdisciplinary study of WWI entail? What are the benefits of this approach for teachers and students?
What is “war literature”?

Tuesday, July 9

History and Historiography of Total War

What does “total war” mean and how might it be a useful lens through which to study WWI?
According to our readings, what points of debate have shaped scholars’ exploration of “total war”?

Wednesday, July 10

Canonical Narratives

In what ways does All Quiet on the Western Front manage to represent WWI as “total war”?
How and why did Remarque’s novel achieve its primacy of place among novels of the war?
What interdisciplinary possibilities arise when the novel and film versions of All Quiet on the Western Front are studied together?

Thursday, July 11

Canonical Narratives

How have other canonical WWI texts come to shape our collective understanding of the conflict?
What do the texts we’ll read for today seem to have in common? In what ways do they raise questions about WWI-era patriotism and propaganda? How do they explore themes of disillusionment and anti-war sentiment?

Friday, July 12

America at War (History)

Why did the United States enter WWI when it did?
Did the American public support the war effort? Why/why not?
What did the war mean to American soldiers and civilians, men and women of all races?
Did America experience “total war” in the same way that European countries did? Why or why not?

Saturday, July 13

Day-long field trip to Washington, D.C.

How did American citizens come to represent the losses and sacrifices of the war in memorial form?

Week Two

Monday, July 15

America at War (Literature)

How does our reading for today represent the effects of total warfare on US citizens, both white and black?
How is the omnipresence of racism in the lives of African-American soldiers and civilians represented in literature?

Tuesday, July 16

America at War (Literature)

How do different kinds of texts (poems, short stories, editorials) seem both akin to and different from one another in their representations of the war?
How are critical views of black service represented in our readings for today?

Wednesday, July 17

Women at War (History)

How did women contribute to the war effort in the various belligerent countries?
What similarities and differences appear between the experiences of women across national borders?
What did “total war” mean for women?

Thursday, July 18

Women at War (Literature)

What portraits of women’s wartime experiences on the home-front are presented in today’s readings?
How do today’s readings address typical domestic representations by way of women serving in the public sphere?

Friday, July 19

Women at War (Literature)

How do female WWI poets use different forms and styles to represent women’s complex roles in the conflict?
How do wartime and post-war poems alike testify to the breadth and significance of female experiences in WWI?

Week Three

Monday, July 22

Empires at War (History)

How and why were Europe’s colonial subjects mobilized for war?
How did colonial subjects respond to mobilization orders and the experience of war?
What did “total war” mean for colonial subjects? What similarities and differences emerged between the experiences of subjects of the various empires?

Tuesday, July 23

Empires at War (Literature)

In what ways does today’s reading return to classic texts, such as All Quiet on the Western Front, while also rewriting them?
What does it mean for an Indian novelist to write a WWI novel from the vantage point of WWII?

Wednesday, July 24