English 382MX - Advanced Topics in English: 'I Would Prefer Not To: Marxism and Early American Literature'

This course considers how early American and African American writers have critiqued labor under capital: from the plantation, to the factory, and to the office. At its core, this course considers how slavery functions as the political unconscious of early American literary critiques of labor. Throughout the semester, we will put a range of early American literary texts in conversation with the Marxist tradition and anti-capitalist theory in order to uncover a latent leftist politics of possibility in the early American period while also exploring how early American authors were anti-capitalist theorists in their own right. Literary authors may include: Harriet Wilson, William Wells Brown, Herman Melville, and more. Marxist theoretical thinkers may include Karl Marx, Cedric Robinson, Angela Davis, and Gy&oumlaut;rgy Lukács.

Course limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors; Prereq: 8 credits in English.