Seminar Five

REMEMBERING AND MEMORALISING THE WAR

Required Readings:

O’Nan, The Vietnam Reader, 632-652, 620-631, 677-690.

In addition, spend some time looking at the following web sites:

The Wall on the Web
http://www.vietvet.org/thewall.htm

Smithsonian exhibit of objects left at the Wall
http://photo2.si.edu/legacy/legacy.html

National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
http://www.nvvam.org/artistwall.html
Click on the names of individual artists to see examples of their work

Vietnam Women's memorial Project
http://vietnamwomensmemorial.org

Vietnam: Stories Since the War
http://www.pbs.org/pov/stories/

Reflections, Memories and Images of Vietnam Past
http://www.vietvet.org/thepast.htm

In preparation for this seminar, please read the short extracts from O’Nan’s Vietnam Reader, and then spend some time examining the web sites devoted to the remembering and memorializing American involvement in the Vietnam War. Think about the following points in preparation for seminar discussion.

* How do civilians and veterans remember and try to make sense of and understand the war?
* How have veterans related their experiences? What appear to be their objectives, and what are some of the results of these autobiographical exercises?
* How have veterans remembered, reevaluated and made sense of their experiences through art and writing?
* Have women who served in Vietnam remembered and dealt with the war in different ways from men?
* How does the war appear to have affected relationships between veterans and civilians?
* How do veterans view the Wall? How does it affect their views of the war?
* How does the Wall allow different generations of civilians to connect with the war, and with those who fought it?
* In what ways does the Wall allow veterans and civilians to memorialise the war?