“Literature and Mass Violence”
From the middle passage to WWII to contemporary state violence and displacement, this course will examine literatures emerging out of and responding to mass violence. Literature and cultural production offers a way for us to engage with mass violence that acknowledges historical legacies and inherited trauma. It also gives us a way to better understand the systemic and structural frameworks that gives rise to violence. We will consider issues of violence and temporality, violence and visibility, and we will examine the limits of representation, recognition, and resistance in multiple forms including fiction, non-fiction, graphic narrative, poetry, and visual culture. We will address questions like: How does one ethically represent mass violence or even recognize it as an instance of mass violence, especially when it is ongoing and less “spectacular”, like climate change and statelessness?
Dr. Belinda Walzer
Tues/Thurs 2:00–3:15
Course poster for ENG/JHP 3712, Literature and Mass Violence, with Dr. Belinda Walzer, Tues/Thurs 2:00-3:15: a black-and-white photograph of helmeted soldiers gathered around a pile of burning books in a street.
