International Conflict The Origins of Global Fury Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Spring 07 Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Fall 06 Cuba and Haiti Religious Revolutions and violence Haiti and the Caribbean Contemporary Issues in International Relations Introduction to International Relations South Asia in a Global and Historical Context Politics of the Third World

Seeing "War of the Worlds": Global politics through Popular films Music of the African Diaspora Worlds of Music Musical Meaning in a Global Context Politics and Literature

Global Political Economy of Oil Understanding Capitalism Foundations in the Political Economy

Ideas and Ideology Love, Hate and Sexual Desire Under Colonialism Junior Year Honors Seminar: Cultural Encounters, 1999-2000

Politics and Literature

310-402-02

1. Objectives:

This is a new course for me. This means I am not certain of my objective or purpose. I do know that if I was very sure of my purpose I would probably have no need to teach the course. Still, I am motivated by the sense that, as analysts of politics, we have a much to learn by examining the indirect, holistic, and charitable manner in which literature engages politics. Here are some of the elements I hope we might investigate: 1) Why and how literature acts powerfully in helping us understand politics; 2) how different literary forms of writing influence our understanding of politics; 3) the subtle and complex relationship between art and politics and between aesthetics and ethics; 4) the political nature of literature; 5) what political analysis can learn from forms of literary writing, and 6) the synthetic overlap between literature and politics.

2. Readings:

We will read between 100-200 pages a week. We will select these readings from the following materials:

Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land, Random House, 1994.

Sorayya Y. Khan, "IntheShadowsoftheMargallaHills," Malahat Review, vol. 110, Spring 1995.

Naguib Mahfouz, The Begger, Doubleday, 1990.

Yukio Mishima, Death in Midsummer, New Directions.

Adrienne Rich, An Atlas of the Difficult World, Norton, 1991.

Tayyib Saleh, Season of Migration to the North, Heinman.

Douglas Unger, Voices from Silence, St. Martins, 1995.

Instructor and students will jointly determine the pace and selection of the readings as the course proceeds.

3. Evaluation

I will determine your grade by evaluating the following components.

50% will come from journals in which you respond to the readings. The journals are due five times during the semester: Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, March 23, April 13. (See below for suggestions on how to write the journal.)

50% of your grade will be derived from one final comprehensive take-home essay. I would like this to be between 15-20 pages in length. I would also like this to be something in which you attempt to synthesize all or most of the course material. You will determine the topic of this essay. This essay will have two due dates:

April 6: I would like to see a draft introduction and an outline (as well as whatever part of the paper you have written). I would like the introduction to be between 3-5 pages. In this introduction I would like you to include the three elements of an coherent introduction. (See below for suggestions on how to write this essay.) My assessment of your introduction and outline will be 20% of your essay grade (or 10% of your overall grade.)

May 6: Completed comprehensive essay.

An "entrypaper" and an "exitpaper" are required but not graded.

Note Well: If you are unclear about these expectations or feel that they do not suit your style of learning, please see me in my office. I will do everything I can to accommodate you. However, please see me by Monday, February 2. After this date, I will assume that you agree to the above arrangement.

Entry paper: due Monday, January, 26.

Exit paper: (due date to be announced)

4. A few more words on the design of the course:

I think of the design of a course as similar to a style of music. Most courses follow "classical(European)music" in design. That is, the audience hears music pre-determined by the score. The music may change slightly from performance to performance but this change is not part of the design of classical music. In contrast, Jazz and classical Indian music combine the structure of the tune, the interpretative skill of the players, and the response of the listeners to create a specific structured improvisation. Accordingly, I have designed this course to change from one experience to another according to the interaction of students, instructor, and the reading materials. Thus no classes or experiences should be the same because the interaction of the three differs on each occasion. This design embraces the necessity of collective improvisation.

A Jazz design has consequences for our sense of time in the course. To some the course will feel less structured and slower than what they might expect. The good news is that the course may also feel like something we create together.

5. Attendance Policy

I have never had an attendance policy before because I believe that you are adults who can make your own decisions about how to best use your time. Recently, however, many students have suggested that this course will work better if I institute an attendance policy. I want to take this suggestion seriously while still holding on to my beliefs that students should be treated as adults. So I have come up with the following menu. By Monday, January 26, I would like each of you to write me note which selects one of the following plans:

__ Thank you, but I do not feel I need an attendance policy.

__ I sometimes need help making sure I attend class. I request that you to keep a record of how often I attend.

__ I sometimes need help making sure I attend class. I request that you to keep a record of how often I attend and to subtract credit if I miss more than ___ (select a number) classes.

__ I sometimes need help making sure I attend class. I request that you to keep a record of how often I attend and to subtract credit if I miss more than 3 classes.

Please convey your selection to me by Wednesday, September 10.

6. Writing Suggestions For Journals

The purpose of the journal is to create an opportunity for you to write informally. I think this releases the pressure associated with writing more structured essays or papers. Less pressure often means greater creativity and enthusiasm both for writing and for thinking about the subject matter. Less pressure also can mean an ease at exploring alternative sides of an issue as well as a willingness to risk thinking beyond the surface of things. In short, the informality of a journal allows us to write what we really feel as opposed to what we think others expect us to say. But what do I mean by informal?

1) Please resist the temptation to list a series of thoughts, or to present short paragraphs on a number of issues. Making lists and writing such paragraphs may be a good way to start. But what I would like is for you to select one or two of the most important themes from your list and write at length.

2) When writing about ideas presented in class or in our texts please resist the temptation to summarize arguments or plots. I am likely to know the material and am more interested in your reactions.

3) There is an inherent tension in the journal between its 'public' and 'personal' aspects. On the one hand, the journal is about ideas which are being discussed in a 'public' sphere. On the other hand, it is not just about ideas, it is also 'personal.' The journal is about you as a thinking and feeling person. Allow your 'self' to enter the discussion. I am interested in what is at stake for you in the ideas you present. How do the ideas involve, engage, implicate, and construct you? It is important to stay within this tension and avoid the extremes. One extreme is the absence of your self in the prose. This usually creates dry, factual, 'objective' reporting. The other extreme is an absence of public ideas which creates what is merely a personal diary. The journal may be thought of as a diary about ideas.

What should you write about? Anything that connects to our texts, discussions or lectures. These can be world events, campus happenings, conversations, material from other courses, aspects of your life, and, of course, ideas from our readings, lectures and discussions. Write what you feel but then ask yourself why you feel the way you do. Or, write about a competing or alternative theme within the same issue and ask yourself why you feel more than one way on an issue. Pose questions for yourself and try to answer them. As you struggle through this process please keep three things in mind. First, I will help you to understand what I think makes a good journal by providing you with comments on your work. Second, you may not be ready or may not be willing to disclose what you consider your 'private' thoughts to me. Please let me know if this turns out to be the case and we will try to accommodate you. Third, and most important, regardless of the style you use, if you make writing the journal worth your while it is very likely that reading it will be worth my while.

8. Writing Suggestions for Essays

I hesitate to present a set of suggestions on writing essays because they may stifle your style. In addition you may be tempted to follow my suggestions to the letter thereby missing the larger point which has more to do with the attitude you bring to the writing and the tone you create. Nevertheless, I offer these suggestions because you may need and appreciate a certain amount of direction. Also, I wish to emphasize a particular style of writing that I hope you will add to your repertoire of skills - the style of an essay. Please take these instructions as "suggestive" and make your own decision on whether you wish to follow them. I would like to register a warning: While this style of writing may have great personal benefits it is not usually favored. The academy stresses a much more certain and assertive style.