Department of English

This course will explore the relation between war writing and travel writing by and about  Americans in Vietnam. In addition to fiction and non-fiction by veterans and war correspondents, we’ll read a selection of articles about travel in Vietnam.  We will also look at the war’s effect on writing by women, Native Americans, African Americans, and we will briefly consider its effect on music and film as well.  But our focus will be on Vietnam, and we will end with work by Vietnamese writers in translation.  The course will include frequent short response papers, a mid-term essay, and a research paper.  Among writers we study will be Graham Greene, Tim O’Brien,  Michael Herr, Robert Olen Butler, John Balaban, Philip Caputo, Louise Erdrich, Susan Brownmiller, Paul Theroux, and Bao Ninh.