Monday 4/17: Literature Post 9/11

Zoom link to join this class can be found here. Passcode is 288624.  

The recording of this class can be found here.

Monday 4/17: Literature Post 9-11

Read or view before class:

● Brian Turner, "Sadiq" from his 2005 book of poems Here, Bullet.  Turner served in the Army for 7 years.  He was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Then in November 2003 he was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

● Phil Klay, "Redeployment," "In Vietnam They Had Whores" from his short story collection Redeployment.  Klay served as a USMC officer in Iraq (Anbar Province) from January 2007 to February 2008.  The PDFs for both stories can be found below.

• Chantelle Bateman, "Lists and Scales."  Bateman served in Iraq, returning home in 2005.  She suffered through years of undiagnosed PTSD, and found art and poetry to be cathartic. 

Prepare or organize before class:

● In our readings for today by Klay, sex plays a prominent role. Coming home in "Redeployment" the narrator is greeted by Cheryl with a very specific "to-do list" and in "In Vietnam they Had Whores" the narrator is told about his father's experience in Vietnam and then gets to relive it with Old Man after his own deployment. With so many other writings that focus on violence in this course why does Klay focus on sex in these two stories - both in a loving way and a "professional" (127) way? How are the two similar? How are they different?