The Great War and Modern Memory

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course students will be introduced to the general narrative of the First World War. From there, we will examine three different topics and eventually show how they are interrelated. First, we will study historiography; that is, the evolution of how historians have written about and understood the First World War. Students will quickly learn how historians work with narrative and elements of story-telling both to explain and to argue (with and against one another). Students will then study memorialization and public history work on the First World War. We will see how history-writing, literature, art, and memorialization are present in the way museums and memorials tell their own stories about trauma, heroism, social inequality, and - in the main - seek to impart understandings about the past. Finally, taking the idea of narrative as a point for opening up our understandings of the past, we will then examine works of fiction, memoires, and poetry that focus on the First World War. The Great War was distinguished by being a "People's War," which meant that all people of all classes fought side by side, farmers next to scholars, workers next to noblemen. There were thus many men (and women) involved in the war who were capable of recording what they saw and felt in both prose and poetry, leaving an extraordinary and unprecedented literary record of their experiences. This course also includes a class trip to memorials and museums in Belgium, and France over fall break. We are working on funding from various sources to pay for most, if not all, expenses for this trip. This course requires an application to enroll. Students interested in the course should contact John Deak (jdeak@nd.edu) for a link to a google form.