Catastrophic Communities

What becomes of communities and individuals in a catastrophe? This course considers the different literary, social and ethical formations that arise or are destroyed in disaster, and examines what it means to be both an individual and part of a collective in times of unprecedented upheaval. Readings by Blanchot, Camus, Sebald, Duras, Freud, Arendt, Jaspers, Orwell, and Eggers.