Undergraduate Courses
E247 The Vietnam War in Fiction
This course traces the origins, development, conduct and aftermath of America's involvement in the Vietnam War by reading and discussing selected fictional works written by participants in the war. Starting with Graham Greene's The Quiet American (set in 1951-2 Saigon) and ending with Robert Olen Butler's Pulitzer-prizewinning collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (about Vietnamese expatriates living in 1980's Louisiana), the course allows students to experience the war chronologically through the eyes of Vietnamese, British, Japanese, and American writers who were there. Professor Pratt, who served in Vietnam and has written widely about the war, has chosen only works that have accurate, datable content and can stand on their own as works of art. He presents each novel in its historical context, thus showing not only the facts of the American involvement but also how caring individuals experienced and reacted to it. Other works read include Tran Van Dinh's No Passenger On the River (the Diem coup, 1963),Takeshi Kaiko's Into A Black Sun (American advisors, 1964-5), Larry Heinemann's Close Quarters (full scale combat, 1967), Jay Boyer's As Far Away as China (Air Force pilot, 1971), and Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country (young woman learns about the war in 1984).
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