Literature and Democracy

3 units

FOR MECC STUDENTS, ONLY. Recent trends in the United States and around the world show that the beliefs and institutions undergirding democracy are in peril. This course examines how literary and theatrical works have explored both the promises and challenges of democracy. Can literary and theatrical works model democracy by articulating multiple points of view in ways that allow for informed civic deliberation? How can literature represent groups historically excluded from democracy? What is the difference between a literary work and a political tract? What unique contributions can literature and the arts make to democracy? When must literature take a political stand? With a continual eye to the present day, the course will consider different places and moments in the historical story of western democracy: ancient Greece, Renaissance England, and nineteenth and twentieth century America.