Background information:

There have been chronicles of war from those who served as early as the 5th century BCE when Thucydides, an Athenian general and fleet commander, penned The History of the Peloponnesian War. Written accounts have ranged from the historical to the personal and have been re-told through memoirs, stories, and poetry. In the module reading, you read about the way that those who have experienced the trauma of war and the events of 9/11 have communicated their experiences. After reading Bumiller's article, A Well-Written War related to infantry leader Brian Turner's collection of poetry, "Here, Bullet," considering Hagedorn's father's "post-chaos" narrative and reviewing the two poems by Sassoon and Graves, answer the following:

A well written war - http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.vlib.excelsior.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=6a9d9865-d2b1-4002-ae1d-499f3192eb97%40sessionmgr104&vid=0&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=47926354&db=bwh

Aftermath by Siegfried Sassoon - http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/9653?CISOBOX=1&REC=6

After a week by Robert Graves- http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/1084?CISOBOX=1&REC=6

Discussion questions:

Who are the writers writing for, and why? Consider all possible audiences.

Discuss the idea of catharsis and whether you think soldier writers benefit, or not, by communicating their experiences and feelings in memoirs, poems, and other narrative accounts. Do you see any potential drawbacks?

Conduct research and identify a written account from a soldier-writer of any time period outlining the key aspects of the work and its background. It may be a work of fiction or nonfiction, poetry, story, or autobiography. Why do you think the writer chose this approach to communicate his/her experiences?

Post should be at least 250 words. Respond to the question but support your thoughts by including at least two references from academic sources that you have researched.