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Thinking the Unthinkable: Writing About the Nuclear Dilemma
ENGL151 SP
The course will inquire into the intellectual labryinths, the emotional riddles, and the moral traps in which the nuclear dilemma has enmeshed American and human understanding and imagination in the last half century.
After acquainting ourselves with
the basic physical facts of the peril, we will examine it through the lenses of high strategy, philosophy, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and film. We will inquire into the tone, the strengths and weaknesses, and the
underlying assumptions of each of these
approaches to the question. Our own underlying assumption will be that we are pursuing from many angles an unfinished inquiry into an unresolved dilemma, not presenting finished truth. Among other questions, we will
ask: What does it mean--and what
should it mean--to each person that the species is capable of destroying itself? Why do direct cinematic renderings of nuclear war make such a small impression? Why are jokes more successful? Why did Gabriel Garcia
Marquez say that it "eludes even the
clear-sightedness of poetry"? What is the status of the dilemma today? What is the relationship of the difficulty to other forms of what Hannah Arendt has called "radical evil"?
MAJOR READINGS
HIROSHIMA, John Hersey THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, Richard Rhodes DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE, Freeman Dyson THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE, Hermann Kahn Poems by Robert Penn Warren, Joseph Brodsky, Richard Wilbur,
William Wordsworth, others THE FATE
OF THE EARTH, Jonathan Schell THE ABOLITION REVOLUTION, Jonathan Schell (forthcoming) THE ARCHITECT OF DESIRE, Susannah Lessard THINKING, Hannah Arendt HIROSHIMA IN AMERICA, Robert Jay Lifton ON THE BEACH,
Nevil Shute LOS ALAMOS, Joseph Kanon
Films: DR. STRANGELOVE, AMAZING GRACE AND CHUCK, THE ATOMIC CAFE THE ATOMIC BOMB: THE CRITICAL ISSUE, Barton J. Bernstein, ed.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Two essays-one short, one long. No exam. Class preparation and participation are important. Letter grades.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Short sample of writing, or statement of reason for wishing to be in the class, or of interest in subject. By 4:00 pm, January 18, 1999 to Sheila Kelleher. Class list posted on department bulletin board by first day of
class. Unless preregistered
students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the
Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459