From Ancient Greece to present-day Sri Lanka and Palestine, literary works have turned to the figure of the corpse in order to articulate critiques of domination and authority. In these texts, the dead human body, despite or perhaps because of its inertness, poses potent problems to the exercise of statist and racist violence, the depredations of plantation slavery and industrial capitalism, and the abuses of empire. What is this strange form of critique, rooted in mere matter that, itself, does nothing but decompose? And what might it teach us as we attempt to survive and thrive in a world defined by spiraling inequality, rising authoritarianism, and environmental catastrophe? In this course, we will begin to answer these questions by examining literary texts from authors including Sophocles, Nadine Gordimer, and Michael Ondaatje, as well as works of philosophy, history, anthropology, political theory, and literary theory from thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Georges Bataille, and Katherine Verdery. In tracking invocations of the corpse at various historical junctures and in various literary genres, we will investigate what makes the dead human body such a compelling figure with which to expose and subvert the exercise of coercive power and violence. At the same time, we will attend to the unique affordances and limitations of literature, drama, and film in expressing this critical potential. |