Comparative Literature 391EV - S-Evil in Modern Culture

This course aims at scrutinizing and understanding evil as manifested in selected cultural artifacts and philosophical texts from the Enlightenment through the Cold War. The so-called problem of evil, radical evil, sadism, the connection between the ideals of the Enlightenment and evil, absolute enmity, genocide and absolute war are some of the topics to be discussed. At the course?s core intersect ethical, political, and artistic issues that concern us all. Throughout the semester, we will ask questions such as: What do we mean when we say ?evil?? How do we account for the existence of evil? What strategies do artists and writers use to represent it? Is there a politics of evil? Since appearance, it will be approached by putting into dialogue philosophy, literature, art, and cinema.