Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0214 - Literature of Radical Change

A famous philosopher once defined literature as the institution that allows one to "say everything." This definition brings together two qualities of literature that we expect to be at odds: its apparent non-seriousness and therefore, we assume, political impotence and its subtle yet unmistakable association with freedom and risk-with free speech, democracy, and inventive and open-ended forms of imagination that make new things sayable, thinkable, and even possible. This course will explore these tensions through literary texts and various accounts of literature in an effort to deepen our understanding of the complex place of literature and literary elements in theories of how we change the world. Readings will touch on theories of censorship, performativity, and terror and may include texts by Plato, Nietzsche, Marx, Charles Baudelaire, Bertolt Brecht, Gustave Flaubert, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Jean Paulhan.

Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend 6-8 hours weekly in preparation and work outside of class time.