PLTC243

Why would a politically-opinionated person write a piece of literature rather than a political treatise? This course explores what the literary form might reveal about politics that more formal political theory misses. Students examine four interconnected topics -- gender politics, political fugitives, utopias and dystopias, and the social construction of race -- to consider the advantages of narrative writing for expressing one's political views. Readings span across space and time, from Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, and Sophocles' Antigone to The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.