The Declaration of Independence and The Communist Manifesto will frame this course's look at radical political and aesthetic projects and their impacts on American history and culture. Major topics will include revolutions, uprisings, abolition, human rights, artistic movements, technological futures, and the post-2016 rising anocracy. Where today are the radical ideas of the American past? Center, fringe, or forgotten? How did they get there? And why? We will examine these revolutionary projects especially as they pertain to the form of the manifesto, though we will also analyze short excerpts of pamphlets, novels, plays, poetry, films, essays, videos, advertisements, children's literature, and social media posts that have inspired or called for revolt, revolution, or have been radical in some way. Trigger warning: this class will critically analyze multiple forms of extremism, political violence, and their legacies.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU BA; AS HUM; FA HUM
