How do we talk about war? This seminar investigates some literary and historical engagements with the war story—not just tales of battlefield suffering or heroics, but stories about telling war stories. Over the course of four weeks this July, we’ll read poems and essays, selections from novels and plays, short stories and memoirs—all interested in some way with how soldiers and civilians alike grapple with war and its aftereffects. We’ll consider literary and cultural reactions to warfare from the Trojan War to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Along the way, we’ll ask: what makes a good warstory? Who tells these stories? How can reading and thinking about old war stories shape the ways we tell new ones or understand our own?