ENG 353 - Narratives of Violence

The goal of this course is to analyze how representations of violence in literature, media, and art shape our understandings of various kinds of violence and the impulses behind specific violent events throughout history. We will examine the interplay between grand narratives of violence (e.g. revolutions, national beginnings, new political orders) and personal accounts of memory, loss, and trauma. Ultimately, we will map similarities and differences among seemingly disparate forms of violence, such as physical, psychological, political, economic, epistemic, cultural, interpersonal, and personal.

In this study, we will reflect on some of the following questions: how do frames of violence, conflict, and peace shape our understanding of these events? What rhetorical strategies produce the effect of official or unbiased accounts of conflict, and what kinds of representations seem personal or biased? What comparisons can we make among different narratives of intention and harm? From whose point of view are these stories of conflict constructed? And how do these acts of narration shape influential conversations about culpability, harm, resources, and healing in literature, art, and culture?
Lecture
Credits: 3
The prerequisites for all ENG courses at the 300 and 400 level are as follows:
1) Either ENG 120 or ENG 122
2) Either ENG 204, ENG 212, ENG 213 or ENG 214
Integrated Core Theme Centerpiece: Violence. Offered in Fall & Spring