Reading & Composition

In this course, we will explore the connection literary/artistic representations of apocalypse and revolution. We will explore a selection of literary, filmic, and theoretical texts that will help us chart the terrain of the volatile conjunction of eschatological imagination and revolutionary desire. For example: what are the material and historical conditions under which the idea of the total “do-over” become compelling? What are the philosophical and political grounds upon which a total disavowal of the status quo can be argued for? What is at stake in different invocations of the notion of the “end-times”?

Through an extended engagement with different genres and modes through which these questions have been posed and addressed (e.g. dystopian and utopian narratives, manifestos, prophecies, political polemics, philosophical treatises), we will attempt to think through the diversity of perspectives and practices that populate the intersection between apocalypse and revolution.

Students will be responsible for approximately 100 pages of reading each week; in addition, there will be a series of writing assignments (1 diagnostic essay, 4 formal essays each comprising of a draft stage and a revision stage) that will be evaluated in terms of your compositions skills as well as your ability to make a coherent, persuasive argument about a given set of texts.