Politics & Leadership in Literature

Catalog description

This course will seek answers to two of the most fundamental of all political questions, namely, who should rule in a regime and for what ends? Before attending to such critical questions, however, we may first have to address such fundamental political matters as the inherent tensions between equality and inequality, religion and the state, rich and poor, democracy and aristocracy, and natural and conventional leaders. Our search will concentrate on major works of literature that focus on these political issues. Such works may take actual historical leaders as the basis of their narratives, but the authors then are able to manipulate the interplay of reason, passions, and desires so that the matters with which we are most concerned may become far more visible in fiction than they ever were in life. In so doing, we may come to better understand the appropriate answers to those main questions of who should rule and for what ends. Cross-listed: LDR 464