University

of Berne English Department MA-Lecture: The American Century

Prof. Thomas Claviez Peter Szanto 09.12.2012

Week 12: A Look Back: The Vietnam War and the Cold War
This Session provides a retrospective view on the years of the Vietnam War and also their respective art- and literary scenes. The United States disastrous involvement in the Vietnam War destroyed the trust of many American people in the government as well as in the military and leaves the country deeply divided. The fact that it was one of the only wars that the USA lost in a long time, made the experience especially dramatic. Several important aspects lead to this negative perception of the American people of this war. First, the returning war veterans were not celebrated as national heroes as they were in previous wars like the Korea War, which was under a strong influence of the McCarthy doctrine. The Vietnam War however, was seen as an unjust and unjustified war, and their participants as killers of innocent people. Second, and strongly influencing the latter, the extensive media coverage showed the people at home a gritty and unadorned picture of the war, how it was never seen before. The saturation bombing and use of chemical weapons like Agent Orange and Napalm shocks the nation and the extremely violent and disturbing images causes heavy protesting. At least since the coverage of the Tet Offensive, the war was perceived negatively of large groups in America. The consequences of Agent Orange are still visible today, as huge territories of the Vietnamese jungle were destroyed and the chemical causes genetic- and birth defects on many generations of locals. Because there is no convincing scientific evidence of Agent Orange on the birth defects, the United States never compensated the victims. Besides that, the war leaves 50% of all Vietnamese cities destroyed and a million children as orphans. Many films discuss the trauma of the Vietnam War, among them also classic (anti-) war films like Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). In the 1967 presidential election, Jimmy Carter runs against Gerald Ford, who granted draft evaders and deserters amnesty. This act was very controversial and, as the pardon of Nixon, harmed his campaign. Jimmy Carter wins the election, but he did not manage the bad economy he inherited from Fords presidency, as the inflation and recession continued and unemployment and oil prices were high. The Iranian Revolution in 1979, in which an Islamic regime replaced the last Persian shah, exacerbates the oil crisis and the prices rise again. Ronald Reagan defeats Carter in the 1980 presidential elections. 1

University of Berne English Department MA-Lecture: The American Century

Prof. Thomas Claviez Peter Szanto 09.12.2012

The second part of the session looked at the culture and the arts of the respective

period. Modernism returns in a second wave from Europe after the famous Armory Show in 1917, and hits the US as Abstract Expressionism in the work of the wild ones Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. This new movement is strongly influenced by the avant-garde and European modernism. For the first time after Cubism in the 1910s and 1920s, artworks became self referential and they were developed towards more surface. Extensive use or thematization of colors, sujets from popular culture and collages characterize this movement. These artists opened the way for a new style, famously represented by Andy Warhol. His new techniques of printing and reproduction created a new concept of original art. Pop Art was also influenced by the media, especially by the press and newspapers and was initially created the be mass produced. Warhol still is and created a cult figure and icon of the American Culture, alongside other Pop artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Keith Haring. They made art for the mass, especially for the American consumer society. Until the 1950, modernism dominated the style in the arts and in literature. Modernism always tried to make it new and thus tried not to follow strict styles and rules. The abstract expressionism and Pop Art however, created a new surface art and helped the rise of postmodernism, which uses history as a toolbox and for quoting styles. The same happened in literature, where authors tried to quote earlier texts and styles to create a new one. Literature and writing became the substance of the very same, thus created a self-reflexive, or intertextual, style of writing. Also, any constructs of norms, rules and theories were free to be ignored in order to bring something new. An important change brings Ferdinand de Saussures linguistic theory of the linguistic turn. The Swiss linguist says, that there is no logical relation between the acoustic image, the signifier, and the mental image, the signified. In short, there is no logical or rational connection between the thing and the describing word, which means that our language is totally arbitrary. If disconnected, no logical method can help us the match the things to the words. As a result, every signification works in a purely negative way. Words differ from each other and thus are predominated to evoke all other signifiers by differing from it. This theory can be adapted to the world, as no experience or perception in rational, but part of a radically negative and differential system. These thoughts are part of the philosophical movement representing postmodernism, which is 2

University of Berne English Department MA-Lecture: The American Century

Prof. Thomas Claviez Peter Szanto 09.12.2012

poststructuralism. Important exponents are Roland Barthes, Jaques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean.Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard. In American literature, Susan Sontag writes a controversial and influential text, Against Interpretation, which argues that literature cannot be interpreted, because no interpretation can claim a higher authority than any other. This deconstructive theory implies an instable text with no direct intentions of the author.