WiSe 21/22: S-Culture-Gender-Media: Figuring Anarchy: Culture, History, Theory
Richard Marklew
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Anarchism has long excited the literary and popular imagination. Depictions of anarchists as crazed bomb-throwing terrorists, violent ideologues, or plain vandals have been common currency from the Victorian Age up until the present day. These portrayals are often found in popular literary work, such as works by Joseph Conrad and G.K. Chesterton, as well as contemporary graphic novels and movies, for example V for Vendetta. While we will briefly examine this common image of the anarchist, the main focus of this course will be to study works by anarchists and libertarian socialists as well as those that have been linked to this political philosophy. The objective of this course is then to engage with these works in order to investigate how literature and radical politics influence each other. In particular, we will examine the importance of literary utopias within anarchist theory and practice. Further, the course will also discuss both memoirs and literary engagements with revolutionary and social action from the Spanish Civil War to the Occupy Movement.
Most course material will be provided on Blackboard. However, students will need to obtain a copy of William Morris’ News from Nowhere and Ursula K Le Guin’s The Dispossessed.
close16 Class schedule
Regular appointments