COML 3090 A (# 15593)
POLS 4031 C (# 15464)
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ENGL 3537 A (# 15507) COML 3090 A (# 15593) POLS 4031 C (# 15464) Special Topics:
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Spring 2003
3:30-4:45 TTh, Newton 1113
Instructor: Dr. David W. Robinson, Dept. of Literature & Philosophy
E-mail: class@ogeechee.litphil.gasou.edu
Instructor's Homepage: http://ogeechee.litphil.gasou.edu
Class Forum: TBA
Literary Readings (preliminary list; others TBA):
Vladimir Mayakovsky, Selected poems (Soviet, 1920s)
Fyodor Gladkov, Cement (Soviet, 1925)
Nikolai Ostrovsky, How the Steel Was Tempered (Soviet, 1934)
Selections from French Surrealist poets (1920s)
Nazim Hikmet, Selected poems (Turkish, 1940s-50s)
Bertolt Brecht, The Measures Taken (play; German, 1930)
The Good Person of Szechuan (play; German, 1943)
"The Condemnation of Lucullus (oratorio; German, 1951)
Christa Wolf, The Search for Christa T. (novel; East German, 1968)
Christoph Hein, The Distant Lover (novel; East German, 1983)
Heiner Müller, Mauser (East German, 1978)
Volokolamsk Highway, (East German, 1980s)
Films:
Battleship Potemkin (Soviet, 1925; director: Sergei Eisenstein)
The Grapes of Wrath (American, 1940; director: John Ford)
The Legend of Paul and Paula (East German, 1973; director: Heiner Carow)
Theoretical Readings (preliminary list):
Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto
The German Ideology
V.I. Lenin: Selected readings
Selections by various (obscure!) authors on Socialist Realism
Twentieth Century world literature was heavily influnced by radical political
ideologies, with revolution in the political sphere often motivating parallel
efforts in the sphere of art. While the reactionary bent of some Modernist
literature is well-known, the literary embodiments of radical leftist ideology
are comparatively neglected, or when noted, dismissed as hack work. This course
will, first, foreground the ideological import of several canonical figures
(most obviously Bertolt Brecht), and second, reclaim representatives of the
neglected traditions of Socialist Realism and its literary cousins. With
supplementary theoretical readings and appropriate historical background, the
course will explore the space that political utopianism shares with literary
fabulation and public performance.
We will focus on a particular leftist literary/revolutionary thread, the most
famous one -- Socialist Realism. To encourage a more general application of the
insights we gain from our readings, I will have each student prepare a presentation
and term paper on some other, non-socialist revolutionary or utopian movement and its
literary manifestations. The American Civil rights movement would be an obvious
choice. Another possibility would be Fascism in one of its versions. In every case,
I am interested in what political imagination does with literature, and what literary
imagination does with politics, when both exist side-by-side in a writer's mind.
There will also be a short paper on a dealing with one of the assigned readings.
Grading:
Grading will be based on the papers, a midterm and final, and on participation in
class discussions and in the on-line class discussion. (See Register_&_Login.html
for details about getting started with the forum.)
Schedule of Classes:
Final Examination:
Tuesday 1/7 ---- Introduction
Thursday 1/9 ---
Tuesday 1/14 ---
Thursday 1/16 -- Continued
Tuesday 1/21 ---
Thursday 1/23 -- Continued
Tuesday 1/28 ---
Thursday 1/30 -- Continued
Tuesday 2/4 ----
Thursday 2/6 --- Continued
Tuesday 2/11 ---
Thursday 2/13 -- Continued
* 18 February is the Withdrawal Deadline *
Tuesday 2/18 ---
Thursday 2/20 -- Continued
Tuesday 2/25 ---
Thursday 2/27--- Continued
Tuesday 3/4 ----
Thursday 3/6 --- Continued
Tuesday 3/11 ---
Thursday 3/13 -- Continued
Tuesday 3/18 ---
Thursday 3/20--- Continued
Tuesday 3/25 ---
Thursday 3/27 -- Continued
Tuesday 4/1 ----
Thursday 4/3 --- Continued
Tuesday 4/8 ----
Thursday 4/10 -- Continued
Tuesday 4/15 ---
Thursday 4/17 -- Continued
Tuesday 4/22 ---
Thursday 4/24 -- Continued
Final Examination: Due Tuesday 29 April at 5 pm