Literature and Revolution

Catalog description

Can art start a revolution? What distinguishes propaganda from art when art gets wrapped up in politics? This course explores these questions in specific examples of writers and artists who not only represented revolution but also participated in performing revolution and effecting political change. We will consider how revolutions spill across the boundaries of several nations - as in 1789-91, 1811-21, 1848, 1917, 1968, etc. - and become part of world history thus compelling us to revise how we read literature comparatively across times, places and languages. This movement shows us how different authors engaged with revolution, creating their own manifestos and visions of utopia. Revolutions always reveal the contradictions built into capitalist modernity, and by reading their movements across borders, we begin to understand not only the dimensions of political change but also the possibilities of social change. We will read focus on four major case studies that demonstrate literature's direct involvement in political change: 19th-century Russian literature; 19th-20th century African American Literature; 20th century Latin American literature; and 20th-century Arabic literature.