HISTORY 220: WAR, MEMORY, MYTH AND HISTORY
North Island College Fall 2021
Delivery Format: Digital Learning Unscheduled (We will not meet as a group via videoconferencing, though there will be at least a couple of optional BlueJeans group sessions and you are also, with advanced notice, welcome to join the CVS1 section of this course for any of its Tuesday 10 am - 12:50 pm sessions [DIS 204]. You will be expected to spend an average of 5+ hours a week on the course yourself.)
Dates: September 8 - December 5
Instructor: Dan Hinman-Smith
Office Phone: 334-5000, Extension 4024
Office Hours: There will be regular opportunities to schedule one-on-one video meetings.
Web- Site for Course: https://www.misterdann.com/contentswarmemory.htm
E-Mail: dan.hinmansmith@nic.bc.ca
North Island College is honoured to acknowledge the traditional territories of the combined 35 First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw and Coast Salish traditions, on whose traditional and unceded territories the college's campuses are situated. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's final report calls for 94 actions toward restoring a balanced relationship between indigenous peoples and settler communities in this country.
Pablo Picasso, "Weeping Woman" (1937)
Leon Trotsky: "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."
Course Description
"Since wars begin in the minds of men," reads the UNESCO charter, "it is in the minds of men that we have to erect the ramparts of peace." This course explores how humans have struggled to understand, memorialize, and learn from war. Although the course uses a comparative thematic approach, there is a heavy emphasis upon twentieth-century wars, since this will both provide a focus and allow us to probe the politicized relationship between lived memory and history. "War," notes the journalist Chris Hedges, "is a force that gives us meaning." War and Memory aims to use monuments, memorials, museums, myths, paintings, photographs, weapons, flags, cartoons, family stories, novels and movies as sources for thinking about the war in which war is remembered and defined.
Amy Tan: "Memory feeds imagination."
Texts
Tim O’Brien, Things They Carried (New York: Mariner, 2009).
Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus (New York: Pantheon, 1997).
***It is important that you acquire these books. Both the Things They Carried ($25) and the Complete Maus ($47) are available for purchase through the NIC Bookstore. I have also included a link to an e-text for the Things They Carried above ($10). One copy of both Maus I and Maus II (the two volumes together comprise the Complete Maus) are on short-term reserve at the Comox Valley branch of the NIC Library.
Tentative Class Schedule
Week 1 (September 8-12): Course Introduction
Letter Of Introduction
Write a short letter of introduction. Who are you? Where are you from? What are you interests? Why are you taking this course? What are your thoughts on entering the course about the relationships between war, memory, myth and history? Do you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions as we start the course? E-mail me this introduction -- it will then become your first Journal entry of the new semester. It can be from a few sentences to a couple of pages in length. You are welcome to share your letter of introduction with your classmates on the Discussion Forum if you would like to do that.
Discussion Forum Contributions
Pandemic Playhouse: Aftermath -- The Remnants Of War
Listening And Viewing
"
Aftermath: The Remnants Of War," NFB, 2001. [57mins.]
Walt Whitman: "Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background . . . and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books."
Week 2 (September 13-19): Whose Ground Zero? (I): The United States, Japan And War Memory
Discussion Forum Contributions
Thank God For The Atom Bomb
Hiroshima And Nagasaki Anniversaries
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in the
Hiroshima And Nagasaki Anniversaries Discussion TopicPaul Fussell and Michael Walzer, “’Thank God For the Atom Bomb and An Exchange On Hiroshima,’” New Republic (August-September 1981).
Listening And Viewing
Watch one or both of the following:
"Atomic Cafe," 1982. [86 mins] or
"White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki," HBO, 2007. [85 mins]
Week 3 (September 20-26): Whose Ground Zero (II)
Discussion Forum Contributions
Japan and World War II Memory
Pandemic Playhouse: Horror In The East
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in Discussion Topic: Japan And World War II Memory
Listening And Viewing
"Turning Against The West," Episode 1, Horror In The East, BBC, 2000. [47 mins]
"
Death Before Surrender," Episode 2, Horror In The East, BBC, 2000 [47 mins]: The second half of this superb documentary about the War in the Pacific is particularly intense. Viewer discretion is recommended.
Week 4 (September 27 - October 3): Whose Ground Zero (III): Remembering September 11th
Discussion Forum Contributions
The Twentieth Anniversary Of 9/11
Pandemic Playhouse: Once Upon A Time In Iraq
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in the Remembering September 11th Discussion Topic
Listening And Viewing
"Once Upon A Time In Iraq," Frontline, PBS, July 14, 2020. [113 mins]
***Sunday, October 3: Journal Check-In Due through Blackboard Learn (Use either the
Regular Journal [Option 1] or the Note-Taking/Journal Combo [Option 2] format). This is an ungraded but compulsory submission. You do not necessarily need to be completed all the way through Week 4 but I do want to see that you are off to a solid start with your Journal.Week 5 (October 4-10): Things They Carried
Discussion Forum Contributions
Things They Carried
Reading Assignment
Tim O'Brien, Things They Carried. New York: Mariner, 2009.
Optional Extras
"Heaven And Earth: Le Ly Hayslip," Documentary, BBC World Service, February 4, 2015. [28 mins]
Lewis Carroll: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward."
Week 6 (October 12-17): Iconic Photos And Iconic Art
Discussion Forum Contributions
Iconic Photos
Pandemic Playhouse: The Third Of May
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in Discussion Topic: Iconic War Photos
Listening And Viewing
"Francisco Goya: The Third Of May 1808," Private Life Of A Masterpiece, BBC, 2004. [48 mins]
Optional Extras
Jordan G. Teicher, "Is War Photography Beautiful Or Damned?," New Republic (November 19, 2015).
***Sunday, October 17: HIS 220 Journal Due through Blackboard Learn (Use either the Regular Journal [Option 1] or the Note-Taking/Journal Combo [Option 2] format) [30% of Course Grade]
Otto Dix, "Flanders"
Pablo Picasso: "Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war." [1944]
Week 7 (October 18-24): For Whom The Bell Tolls -- The Spanish Civil War As A Case Study In Forgetting
Discussion Forum
In Praise Of Forgetting
Spanish Civil War And Historical Memory
Reading Assignment
David Rieff, "
The Cult Of Memory: When History Does More Harm Than Good," Guardian, March 2, 2016.Browse extensively in the
Spanish Civil War And Historical Memory Discussion TopicOptional Extras
"Picasso," Simon Schama's Power Of Art, 2007. [54 mins]
Browse extensively in the
Guernica Discussion Topic
Henri Cartier-Bresson, (Seville) Spain, 1933
Helen Keller: "I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding that bringeth peace."
Week 8 (October 25-31): Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier
Mini-Assignment
Discussion Forum Contributions
Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier
Confederate Monuments In The News
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in the
Confederate Monuments In The News Discussion TopicAnna Souto, "From The Somme To 7/7: What War Memorials Can Tell Us About Ourselves," Conversation, June 30, 2016.
Optional Extras
"
How Southern Societies Rewrote Civil War History," Vox, October 25, 2017. [7 mins]"
How The 'Lost Cause' Narrative Became American History," Washington Post, March 5, 2020. [8 mins]*** Sunday, October 31: Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier Powerpoint Due through Blackboard [12%]
Week 9 (November 1-7): The Great War And Modern Memory
Discussion Forum Contributions
Gavrilo Princip, Franz Ferdinand, And Gallipoli
Who, After All, Speaks Today Of The Annihilation Of The Armenians?
Pandemic Playhouse: War Without End or Long Shadow
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in Discussion Topic: Gavrilo Princip And Franz Ferdinand In Myth And Memory
Browse extensively in Discussion Topic: Armenia And World War I
Browse extensively in Discussion Topic: Gallipoli And World War I
Listening And Viewing
"
War Without End," Episode 8, Great War And The Shaping Of The 20th Century, PBS, 1996. [55 mins.]Optional Extras
Long Shadow, BBC, 2014:
Episode 1, Remembering And Understanding: Watch through Films On Demand in the NIC Library Database of through a Public Access Website.
Episode 2, Ballots And Bullets: Watch through Films On Demand in the NIC Library Database of through a Public Access Website.
Episode 3, Us And Them: Watch through Films On Demand in the NIC Library Database of through a Public Access Website.
"Remembering The Armenian Massacres," BBC Persian, April 23, 2019. (41 mins.)
Verdun -- The Sacred Wound, BBC Radio 4, February 2016:
Episode 1, "The Battle"
Episode 2, "Loss And Legacy"
Browse in Discussion Topic: The Great War At 100
Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem
Week 10 (November 8-14): Complete Maus
Instructions For Maus Mini-Essay
Discussion Forum Contributions
Maus
Pandemic Playhouse: The Last Survivors
Reading Assignment
Art Spiegelman, Complete Maus. New York: Pantheon, 1997.
Listening And Viewing
"
The Last Survivors," Frontline, PBS, 2019. [55 mins.]Optional Extras
Browse in Discussion Topic: Auschwitz At 75
"Germany: Justice And Memory," Documentary, BBC World Service, January 15, 2020. [53 mins.]
Heather Souvaine Horn, "Facing Up To The Past, German-Style," New Republic (October 31, 2019).
"Rape Of Europa: The Systematic Theft And Destruction Of Europe's Art Treasures," 2008 [116 mins.]: You will need a Vancouver Island Regional Library Card to watch this excellent documentary via Kanopy streaming services. The VIRL has many useful services that nicely complement those offered by the North Island College Library and Learning Commons. This documentary may also be available on Prime.
*** Sunday, November 14: Maus Mini-Essay Due through Blackboard [12%]
Week 11 (November 15-21): War And The Birth Of Nations
Optional Group Seminar
Sites Of War Memory Workshop
Discussion Forum Contributions
War And The Birth Of Nations
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in
Discussion Topic: War And The Birth Of A Nation (1) -- Bangladesh As A Case StudyBrowse extensively in
Discussion Topic: War And The Birth Of A Nation (2) -- Vimy Ridge In Myth And MemoryListening And Viewing
"
A License To Remember: Je Me Souviens," NFB, 2003. [51 mins.] If you click on the video, it should start free of charge. If you experience issues here, I do not expect you to rent the film.Optional Extras
"
How The Battle Of Beaumont-Hamel Devastated Newfoundland," Sunday Magazine, CBC, June 17, 2016. [33 mins]"The Road To Nowhere: Yugoslavia," Blood And Belonging, 1993. [50 mins.]
Corbett Hancey, "The International Myth Of Canada As A Peacekeeping Nation," Walrus (December 11, 2017).
Week 12 (November 22-28):
Sites Of War Memory ResearchOptional Group Seminar
Sites Of War Memory Workshop
Discussion Forum Contributions
Theater Of War
Reading Assignment
Browse extensively in the Theater Of War Discussion Topic
Week 13 (November 29 - December 5):
Sites Of War MemoryDiscussion Forum Contributions
Sites Of War Memory
Assignment
Complete your Sites of War Memory Assignment.
Martin Tupper: "Memory is not wisdom; idiots can by rote repeat volumes. Yet what is wisdom without memory?"
***Sunday, December 5: Sites Of War Memory Assignment Due through Blackboard [20%]
|
Letter Of Introduction |
1% |
|
Journal |
30% |
|
Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier PPT |
12% |
|
Maus Mini-Essay |
12% |
|
Sites Of War Memory |
20% |
|
Discussion Forum Contributions |
25% |
Milan Kundera: "The struggle against power is the struggle of memory over forgetting."
Letter Of Introduction (1%)
Write a short letter of introduction to me at the beginning of the semester. This should be at least one hundred words in length and is designed to give me a beginning idea of who you are and how I might best serve you as a teacher, and to provide me with an opening snapshot of the class as a whole. You need not use the following questions as direct cues but they may be helpful. Who are you? Where are you from? How might you begin to describe your community and what life is like there if you've come to NIC from far away? What are your interests? Why are you taking this course? What are your thoughts and reflections on entering the course about the relationships between war, memory, myth and history? Do you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions? Submit your Letter of Introduction and Reflections to me through the Blackboard Learn site (https://learn.nic.bc.ca). This submission then can become your first Journal entry of the new semester and can be paired with your Reflections entry that you will write at the end of the course. I ask for letters of introduction from students in each of my classes. If you are enrolled in more than one class with me this semester, a single letter of introduction will suffice, though you should include opening reflections upon War and Memory and should also say something about each of the classes in which you are enrolled with me as your instructor. If you have taken a class with me before, please update what you sent me before and send me a new letter of introduction.
Journal (30%)
The student Journal will be the most substantial assignment in this course. It will represent your on-going engagement with the first six weeks of the core class curriculum. The focus of the Journal should be on analysis, interpretation, and commentary. It should consist of a series of short writings of varying lengths about the course material. I refer to these short writings as entries. The purpose of the journal is to provide you with the opportunity for frequent thoughtful and analytical commentary upon course-related material.
I have provided you with two different options for the Journal: (1) The Regular Journal; or (2) The Note-Taking/Journal Combo. These are described in detail on the Assignment Page of my web-site. You should familiarize yourself with these two models and make a clear choice between the options at the beginning of the course.
This assignment is designed to be coordinated with the on-line Blackboard Discussion Forums. Your Journal entries will overlap with many of the Discussion Forum topics. It is fully appropriate to share commentary from your Journal with classmates in the relevant Pandemic Playhouse or Discussion Topic Forums.
It is expected that you work regularly on the Journal throughout the first half of the semester. You will need to hand in the Journal to me twice.
You will submit your Journal-in-Progress to me through the Blackboard site at the end of the fourth week of the semester on Sunday, October 3. This will be an ungraded but mandatory hand-in. I want to check to ensure that you are off to a good start and that we share a mutual understanding as to the nature of the assignment.
The Journal will again be due at the end of the sixth week on Sunday, October 17. You should include all the Journal work you have completed to this point in the semester as a single file through Blackboard at this time. This submission will be graded and is worth 30% of your course grade.
I use Journals in some of my other classes and often have them as semester-long projects. That is not the case in HIS 220, however. After the end of Week 6, you will move onto other assignments, though you will still be expected to do your best to keep up with the core syllabus materials and to include commentary upon several different resources in your Discussion Forum Contributions.
Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier Powerpoint (12%)
You will research one country's national Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument and produce a Powerpoint presentation that combines images and texts to tell the history of that monument. You will submit the assignment both to be graded and to share with your classmates.
Maus Mini-Essay (12%)
This assignment will be your written analysis (approximately 3 double-spaced pages in length) of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel about the lives of his Auschwitz survivor parents and their relationship with him.
Sites Of War Memory Assignment (20%)
You will research the history of various monuments, memorials, battlefields and other symbolic war memory sites as way to compare how different groups have remembered, commemorated, and reinterpreted the meanings of war. You will be encouraged to focus upon a chosen theme or themes and will be asked to share the results of your research with your fellow students.
Discussion Forum Contributions (25%)
The Discussion Forums are meant to facilitate the sharing of ideas and to engage you with your classmates. You should try to offer commentary upon a weekly basis. Evaluation will be based not just upon the number of contributions but rather more on the level of their thoughtfulness, with added appreciation for genuine engagement with fellow students. Although I will leave up Discussion Forums throughout the semester, my expectation is that you will do your best to stay current with the scheduled Discussion Forums. Those students who do not regularly contribute to the forums will see this reflected in their grades and evaluation.
The Discussion Forums will be divided into your reflections upon the course documentaries (Pandemic Playhouse) and your discussions upon other course materials. This is in part to emphasize the importance that I attach to the HIS 215 viewing responsibilities. There are several feature videos that rest near the heart of the curriculum. Please do not make any Pandemic Playhouse comments on documentaries that you have watched yourself.
As mentioned above, it is fine to have considerable overlap between your Discussion Forum Contributions and your Journal entries. But it is expected that you will put considerable time and thought into each Discussion Forum Contribution and that each contribution will represent your original ideas.
There is an average of two Discussion Forums a week. You certainly are not expected to contribute to each of these forums. I hesitate to suggest a quantitative target, but would estimate that engaged students will have contributed to twelve or more Discussion Forums by the end of the term.
Time Commitment
Although the time it takes individual students to complete course responsibilities varies individually, I have set up the course with the expectation that you will probably need to devote at least five hours a week to this course on a regular basis right from the start of the semester. It is important that you not fall behind on your assignments. Please stay in close communication with me and let me know if you are experiencing challenges in keeping up with the curriculum.
Late Policy
The curriculum for this course is organized on a week-by-week basis, in which most assignments are cumulative and on-going. Discussion amongst students is also dependent upon classmates keeping current with their studies. Late assignments are also often an extra burden from an instructor standpoint. Due dates should be noted and met.
However, I appreciate that there may be occasions where a very few extra days to polish an assignment in the midst of competing deadlines can be helpful, and thus I deliberately assume a good-faith effort on the part of students to meet the due dates and provide a small cushion of flexibility without any academic penalty. That does not mean the due dates are unimportant or that extensions are automatically granted. You must discuss possible extensions with me directly and I reserve the right to refuse to accept any late assignment if you do not check in with me before the due date. As a general rule, no assignment will be accepted more than two weeks late and no end-of-the-semester assignment will be accepted more than one week late.
Discussion Forum contributions should ideally be made the week of the discussion itself and will be considered late if made more than two weeks after we have moved to a new topic. Your ability to maintain this schedule will have a major impact upon your Discussion Forum Contributions Grade.
Writing Support And Peer Tutoring
Writing Support is available to all students at no additional cost. Go to Writing Support for any or all of your assignments. Every visit is a step toward becoming a better writer. Use Writing Support as many times as you like, and at any point in your writing process. The writing support faculty can help you understand the assignment, develop your ideas, outlines, thesis, and revision -- and anything else in-between. Book your appointment through the library website, or visit the library desk to inquire about drop-ins. There's also WriteAway, an online tutoring platform that allows you to upload your papers and assignments for detailed written feedback. Both services may be found at https://library.nic.bc.ca/WritingSupport .
Student Technical Services
Our Student Technical Service team is available to help you with any technical issues that you may be experiencing as a student. Please go to https://library.nic.bc.ca/studenttech for more information.
Learn Anywhere
NIC's Learn Anywhere website is geared to provide a collection of information that will help you be successful learning digitally by covering area such as: What is digital learning? How to be a digital learner while using NIC-supported technologies during your studies? A list of key skills and knowledge all students should have for successful learning in today's world, knowing your rights and responsibilities and Technology Readiness Checklists. More details at: https://learnanywhere.opened.ca/
Community Supports (24/7)
There are several supports available to help any student in distress. If you are in distress, please reach out for support.
Vancouver Island Crisis Line: 24/7 1-888-494-3888 (
Available to students located on Vancouver Island only)Crisis Suicide helpline: 24/7 1-800-784-2433 (
Available to students located in Canada only)BC 211: Full list of community services available across BC. Dial 2-1-1 on BC cellphone (
Available to students located in BC only).Here2Talk: 24/7 counselling support for post-secondary students: 1-877-857-3397 (
Available to students located in Canada and offshore).A Note On Plagiarism
Everything that you hand in should be your original work unless otherwise indicated. Violations of this policy may result in being reported to the Academic Integrity Committee and in failing an assignment or the course in its entirety. Please talk to me if you have any uncertainty about what is permitted here. I want to help you to get as much out of this course as possible but, for this to happen, you need to put forth strong and honest effort.
Related Policy
Community Code of Academic, Personal and Professional Conduct (3-06)
Instructional Accommodation and Access Services for Students with Disabilities (3-17)
Student Complaint Resolution Policy (3-31)
Evaluation of Student Performance Policy (3-33)
Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy (3-34)
Academic Standing and Progression (3-37)
W.H. Auden: "To save your world you asked this man to die. Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?"