“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”: Writing (Un)just War
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is imperative that it be thoroughly studied. (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 1.1)
There are few human activities that are as dramatic and traumatic as organised warfare. An activity as ancient as the formation of our earliest tribal communities, war has shaped much of our histories, our experiences, our institutions, our politics, our laws, and our collective consciousness. Since “war is a matter of vital importance to the State,” affecting all positions, all stations, and all individuals in a political community, it must necessarily impinge on all aspects of society – military, religion, government, judiciary, diplomacy, economy, logistics, ethics, family, education, etc. For that reason, th justice – and injustice – of war remains a paramount consideration for every sovereign stat contemplating the use of arms for offensive or defensive, pre-emptive or preventive, purposes. In thi unit, we will scrutinise various premises, and pretences, of the just war tradition from the classical age t modernity. Is there ever a just cause for war, a just cause to bear arms? Can there be a fair prosecution of organised violence against another community? Can “just war” really lead to just peace? And how do we reckon with the cost of war? To address these thorny problems, the course will offer a critical survey of notable just war thinkers that includes Plato, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, Hugo Grotius, Emer de Vattel, and the Enlightenment advocate of perpetual peace, Immanuel Kant. Especially crucial are their formulations of jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum, the three cruxes of international conventions governing the rules of engagement, the call to intervention, and the reordering of post-war relations. Yet, a dark spectre looms over this (in)glorious affair: how should one measure the toll of war on persons, on families, and on communities? To that end, we will pit the just war tradition against literary representations of historical conflicts in drama, poetry, and fiction. From the epic clash of civilisations in Aeschylus’ Persians, to the veneration of warrior machismo in William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, and to the catastrophic loss of lives, youth, and innocence in the First World War poems of Charlotte Mew, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, and Isaac Rosenberg, these works not only interrogate popular imaginings of war in Western culture but also the very just war tradition from which many ancient and modern conflicts arose. Finally, this year-long study will culminate in what many consider as the greatest war novel of all time, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1928), arguably the starkest critique of the futility and utter wastage of twentieth- century armed struggles.
READING TEXTS:
I. Primary
Fall 2020- Spring 2021 Sr.
Aeschylus. Persians and Other Plays, translated with introduction by Christopher Collard, Oxford UP, 2008. (ISBN 978-0-19-283282-5) [NOTE: read Persians]
Plato. The Republic, translated by Robin Waterfield, Oxford UP, 2008. (ISBN 978-0-19-953576-7) [NOTE: read Chapter 7]
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front, Ballantine Books, 1982. (ISBN 978-0-449- 21394-0)
Shakespeare, William. Coriolanus, edited by R. B. Parker, Oxford UP, 2008. (ISBN 978-0-19-953580-4)
Graves, Robert. “A Dead Boche” and “Recalling War.” Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, OUP, 2013, pp. 194 and 198-9.
Mew, Charlotte. “June, 1915” and “The Cenotaph.” Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, OUP, 2013, pp. 46.
Owen, Wilfred. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, OUP, 2013, pp. 153-5.
Rosenberg, Isaac. “Dead Man’s Dump” and “Daughters of War.” Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, OUP, 2013, pp. 140-4.
Sassoon, Siegfried. “Christ and the Soldier,” “‘They,’” “The Poet as Hero,” and “Repression of War Experience.” Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, OUP, 2013, pp. 92-95 and 97-98.
II. Secondary
Bellamy, Alex J. “Francisco de Vitoria.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 77-91.
Christov, Theodore. “Emer de Vattel.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 156-167.
Lang, Anthony F. “Hugo Grotius.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 128-143.
Orend, Brian. “Immanuel Kant.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 168-179.
Reichberg, Gregory M. “Thomas Aquinas.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 50.-63.
Steward, Gavin. “Marcus Tullius Cicero.” Just War Thinkers: From Cicero to the 21st Century, edited by Daniel R. Brunstetter, Routledge, 2018, pp. 8-20.