POL 225: Politics in Film & Lit

Literature and film bring political themes to life. They explore themes -- of honor vs. duty, civic heroism and the pursuit of juistice, the folly of pride and the corruption of power, the individual vs. the state -- that are timeless yet intimate. Literature and film invite us to suspend believe and exercise our imagination. They also pull us in two opposite directions -- escape and engagement. In this course, we will explore these themes in pairs of great literary and cinematic works such as Antigone and Hunger Games, Casablanca and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Citizen Kane and All the King's Men, Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies, and selections from the Victorian novelist George Eliot and Anthony Trollope and the Russian hedgehog and fox, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.