GAWS 407 - Seminar: Picturing War: American Visual Culture, Militarization and Crises of Identity

Semester Offered: Second Semester
Credits (Range): 4 Hours
Attribute: 4 HU, CD, Wri

This seminar examines how American visual culture has represented the nation’s military actions since World War II. Ideals of gender, race, and nation often justify militarism, yet visual depictions also provoke anxieties about masculinity and femininity, home and nation, self and other. We will analyze photographs, television and film to consider such issues as the symbolic value of female bodies in narratives of national defense and how racial ideals secure or undermine the authority of the male body under attack. Students are required to write a research paper based on secondary and primary source material. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 15.
Instructor: W. Kozol
Prerequisites & Notes
Note: Priority given to Gender and Women’s Studies majors.