Political Science 351 - Politics and Ordinary Life

This course is an exploration of connections between the experience of ordinary life -- the judgments people make concerning good and bad, and competing goods, freedom and obligations, and other moral issues – and how they are theorized in the works of various political theorists. Each week we will pair a reading from the history of Western political theory– such thinkers as Emerson, Aristotle, Mill DuBois, Butler, Arendt, Foucault, and others – with a film that sheds some light on the relevance of the thinker to contemporary life. We will make some use of Stanley’s Cavell’s book, Cities of Words, which paired thinkers with classic Hollywood movies, but we will range more broadly in our selections, exploring, for example, such films as Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Wim Wenders, Paris, Texas, and the Coen brothers, Fargo

Requisite: Two prior courses in political science.    Recommended:  One course in political theory

Limited to 18 students   Not open to first-year students   Fall semester    Professor Dumm

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Written work, readings, viewing, and independent research. Students will be required to keep a hand-written journal for the class, and will be required to write a course essay on a film or a particular filmmaker.