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CS92PROD
Fascism and American Literature

ENGL 383
Spring 2022 not offered
Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate

American writers were deeply engaged by the rise of 20th-century European fascism. A number of American writers took part in a generational critique of liberal democracy and thus played a role in establishing the intellectual context for the success of fascist ideology. Some American writers were fascinated by the seeming dynamism and innovation of fascist regimes. Others recognized early on the rising threat of authoritarianism and militant nationalism. In the years after World War II, many American writers surveyed the wreckage of global war and the consequences of genocidal racism and worried about their significance for art and literary expression. Were literary writers meaningfully complicit in the rise of fascism? Had totalitarianism discredited literature and culture? Or could art be a challenge to the forces that drove the rise of fascism? This research seminar will examine a range of ways in which American writers responded to fascism. We will consult the historiography and theory of fascism, as well as scholarship in the sociology of culture, with the aim of understanding how the rise of fascism affected American writers' fundamental beliefs about literature, democracy, and modern society.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode:
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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