Fiction-making in Politics

Catalog description

Given Q-Anon conspiracy theorizing, Donald Trump's "stop the steal," and MAGA support for their fiction-making, many pundits and academics posit the emergence of a nihilistic "post-truth" era. The goal of this class is to enter and explore this epistemological and political crisis. We will do so by asking: By what criteria do we and should we judge divergent political narratives, whether on the right, by the democratic party establishment, or by its critics on the left? If human beings access reality by narratives, then should we accept the unstated assumption, across political divides, that "fiction-making" is hostile to truth, an obstacle to facing reality as it is? If human beings need to "make up" stories and craft political visions to tell truths that are otherwise unspeakable, then fiction-making and truth-telling can be related, not antithetical. But which, when? Why does logic or fact-checking seem to fail to correct fantasies and remedy ignorance? Is it by exposure to powerful story-telling that offers, not so much new facts, as unexpected perspectives on familiar realities we thought we already knew? We will pursue these questions specifically by tracing the grip of white supremacy, the powerful and destructive fiction materialized in social life, and by tracing how fiction has been crucial in the truth-telling and democratic visions of those who have opposed it. Readings may include works by: Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Richard Hofstadter, James Baldwin, Thomas Pynchon, and Fred Moten.