The Vietnam War: As Seen in Film and Literature

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Vietnam War, this course offers commentary on the war from various perspectives in film and literature. In weeks one, two, five and six, we will screen and discuss four documentary films: In the Year of the Pig, directed by Emile de Antonio; The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, directed by Errol Morris with an original score by Philip Glass; Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, directed by Bill Couturie; and Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, a film about the artist who designed the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, directed by Freida Lee Mock.

Weeks three and four will be devoted to two novels: The Things We Carried by Tim O’Brien and Dispatches by Michael
Herr. They describe the alternating cynicism and helplessness of American soldiers swept up by a war ferociously pitchedon political abstraction. Both novels" one fictional, the other non-fictional" reveal the searing effects of the Vietnam War on the hearts and souls of young men and women plucked from peaceful lives and thrust into a matrix of absurdity and violence.

CLASS DATES ARE:

March 20 & 27

April 3, 10, 17 & 24

For Film: Former Mayor of Scranton David Wenzel
For Literature: Daniel V. Fraustino, PhD., Professor of English, The University of Scranton

*April 3 & 10 will take place in the Weinberg Memorial Library, Room 305