DepSem: Autobio Amer Democ

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Since at least The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, American thinkers have written their life stories for various political purposes: to outline an ethical way of political life, to resist authority or injustice, to insist on the author’s place among the people, and so on. This course surveys those political actors who have drawn on autobiography to champion or critique American democracy. We will investigate how actors use the genre to wrestle with topics such as the relevance of morality for citizenship, whether participants should draw on experience in political debate, how democracy should respond to histories of injustice, and how citizenship should best reflect a diverse public. As a department seminar, the course will guide students through a semester-long research project in which they interpret personal narrative(s) of choice according to their political, economic, and cultural contexts. This semester we will read authors such as Benjamin Franklin, Black Hawk, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Henry David Thoreau, Booker T. Washington, Henry Adams, Emma Goldman, Whittaker Chambers, and Malcolm X, as well as engage with recent examples of personal narrative in immigration, sexual identity, and presidential politics. About the instructor: Nolan Bennett an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Government, having received his doctorate in Government from Cornell University. Prof. Bennett’s research is broadly focused on the history of American political thought and the mutual influence of democratic politics and literature in the United States and elsewhere. His research is particularly focused on the politics of autobiography, incarceration in the United States, and African American political thought.