ENGL3440: Literature and Philosophy (45782)

Payton, Jason

TR 8:00 AM

Park Hall 136

This course will explore philosophical issues through the lens of literature. We will focus primarily on novels that address the organizing themes of the course and will supplement those novels with a handful of philosophical texts. 

The course will be a mix of lecture and discussion. Issues explored include: 

  • Utopia & Dystopia
  • Labor, Value, & Political Economy
  • Colonialism & Postcolonialism
  • Existentialism, Nihilism, & Subjectivity
  • Beauty & the Abject

Major philosophical works explored include:

  • Thomas More, Utopia
  • Karl Marx, Capital
  • Homi Bhaba, The Location of Culture
  • Gayatri Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak
  • Frederick Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea
  • Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror

Literary works explored include:

  • Thomas More, Utopia
  • J.M. Coetzee, Foe
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
  • Martin Amis, Time's Arrow
  • Elie Wiesel, Night

Major assignments include:

  • 1 short literary analysis paper (5 pp.)
  • 1 final prjoect (traditional research paper, pedagogical project, or creative project, according to students' proclivities)