Radical Pasts, Radical Futures: Literature and the Left

This course examines American literary representations of leftist social movements in the late twentieth century, including the antiwar movement, anticolonialism, and Black Power nationalism. The class explores autobiographical and journalistic accounts published during the U.S. counterculture as well as novels that present this radicalism after its decline. Authors include Norman Mailer, Angela Davis, Joan Didion, E.L. Doctorow, and John Wideman.