Spring,
Fall
4
This course explores how literature (and the arts generally) express political ideas and pursue political purposes. Topics and readings vary but they include: literary depictions of political causes, political crises, war and peace, leaders and followers, conflicts of individuals and society, and the competing demands of nature and civilization. Authors read in this course might include: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Defoe, Stendahl, Austen, Dickens, Melville, Hawthorne, Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Ralph Ellison, Don DeLillo, Phillip Roth and Tom Wolfe. Not offered every year.