Literature, Violence, and the State

Literature, Violence, and the State is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Mary Russo.

This course requires prerequisites.

Course Description
A course on the poetics and politics of tragedy focusing on representations of state violence whose victims and agents of criminality have been women. The class will examine closely Sophocles' Antigone; Shakespeare's "Rape of Lucrece" and Titus Andronicus; and nineteenth- and twentieth-century depictions of the life and death of Beatrice Cenci (Shelley's and Artaud's among others). Beginning with Aristotle's Poetics, students will consider other writings in philosophy, classical and romantic poetics and contemporary literary and social theories that link ethical, aesthetic, and emotional criteria to the question of what constitute legitimate acts of sovereign force or of individual self-sacrifice. Evaluation criteria: Students will be evaluated on their preparation for class discussion, a group project, and short, written assignments and a final portfolio. Prerequisite: Two or more previous courses in the Humanities.