Edwin Daniel Jacob danjacob@rutgers.edu
Department of Political Science
790:316:02
Politics, Literature, and the Arts
Fall 2015
Office Hours: Tuesdays 4pm-5pm, Hickman Hall 305
Politics, Literature, and the Arts
This course will examine how perennial issues of political thought are represented in various artistic mediums. We will ground our investigations in political theory, and use film, music, novellas, and plays to augment , not substitute, our understandings of political phenomena.
Particular attention will be spent on modern domestic, state, and geopolitical concerns facing the
US and the world. Grading will be based on two take-home examinations and class participation.
Required readings
Albert Camus, Caligula and Three Other Plays
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation
Karl Marx
,
Capital, Volume I
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The First and Second Discourses
Carl Schmitt, Concept of the Political
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Films
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
A Brief Vacation (Vittorio De Sica, 1973)
The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989
John Adams (Tom Hooper, 2008)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
The Perverts Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, 2012)
Syriana (Stephen Gaghan, 2005)
Unthinkable (Gregor Jordan, 2012)
Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)
The Wannsee Conference (Heinz Schirk, 1984)
The Wild Child (François Truffaut, 1970)
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction (September 1)
Review syllabus
Film: The Perverts Guide to Ideology
Week 2: State(s?) of [Human] Nature (September 15)
Rousseau, The First and Second Discourses
Film: The Wild Child
Week 3: Sovereignty, Local and Global (September 22)
Hobbes, Leviathan (Book I, Ch.’s 13-16 and Book II)
Film: Syriana
Week 4: American Institutions (September 29)
Hamilton, Federalist #1 and 78 and Madison, Federalist #10 and 51, in The Federalist Papers
Film: John Adams
Week 5: Political Economy and its Critique (October 6)
Marx, Capital, Vol. I (Parts I and II)
Film: Wall Street
Week 6: Imperialism, War, and Genocide (October 13)
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Film: Apocalypse Now
Week 7: Power and Totalitarianism (October 20)
Schmitt, Concept of the Political
Film: The Wannsee Conference
Week 8: Utopia and the Political Imagination (October 27)
Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation
Film: Metropolis
Week 9: Alienation and the Limits of Freedom (November 3)
Camus, “The Misunderstanding,” in Caligula and Three Other Plays
Film: The Conversation
Week 10: Colonialism, Self Determination, and Political Violence (November 10)
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Film: Battle of Algiers
Week 11: Justice and Identity, Then and Now (November 17)
King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Film: Do the Right Thing
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Week 12: Gendered Visions (November 24)
Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Film: A Brief Vacation
Week 13: Ethics and/in the War on Terrorism (December 1)
Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Film: Unthinkable
Week 14: Conclusion (December 8)
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