DOCUMENTARY THEATRE: DRA.3500.20  and (Lab) Sec. 10

  PERFORMING WW WAR II: TRANSFORMATIONS IN GLOBAL GENDER IDENTITY

Tues &Fri 2:30 H 2062 Dr. Kay Ellen Capo; Kay.Capo@purchase.edu;

This course will help students use personal narratives of WW II–  folklore, letters, documentary film, music, memoirs, oral history and archival documents—to create short scripts for live (stage), radio & video performances.  It won’t take “six degrees of separation” to connect each student to a man or woman deeply affected by WW II—or to discover how global issues of gender identity are still constructed through WW II imagery.  This course asks: How does the reality and memory of WW II continue to shape global character, especially with respect to gender identity, 60 years after the war’s end?

As America continues to wage what is now our longest war, public narratives of World War II remain a template for American global power and gender construction.  In 2005, the global anniversary year marked the 60^th anniversary of Allied victory over Hitler and of the Japanese surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  As Europe, Africa and Asia come to terms with their military past, US military power evokes WW II imagery and its gender icons to bolster the war in Iraq—(e.g. equating Sadaam with Hitler)—or to frame issues related to women in the military–or to help Americans decide whether a female president can “defend and protect” the US as its Commander-in-Chief.  War, leadership, and gender are intertwined.

From islands in the Pacific to deserts of Africa, the Burmese tropics or great cities of Europe, Japan and China, WW II drew millions of men, women and children into devastation.  American life seemed protected at home, but social change accelerated.   Millions of women joined the work force while others joined the Armed Forces as nurses, clerks, accountants.  When veterans returned to the US after WW II they spearheaded social changes ranging from space exploration, medicine, and nuclear power to the American ski industry—creating new jobs for women as well as men.

We will engage living witnesses to W II—from the war and homefront –to explore events, attitudes, pictures, magazines, photos, songs, speeches,  cartoons, swingdancing, movies–focusing mostly on the European Theatre (1944-5).  Oral history interviews with live informants –veterans, their spouses or children– will be a key element of the course. How did families cope with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder?  STUDENTS WILL CREATE SHORT PLAYS, RADIO AND VIDEO PIECES TO FRAME THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER POLITICS IN WW II AND CONSIDER HOW MEMORIES OF WW II CAN PROMOTE PEACE.