ASRC 6525 - [Conscription in Three Figures: Fredric Jameson, Machiavelli and CLR James]

Fall. Next Offered: 2019-2020. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

G. Farred.

Using Jameson’s 2015 essay, “An American Utopia,” as its point of departure, this course takes up the relation amongst conscription, democracy and politics. In their work, Jameson (“Utopia”), Machiavelli (“The Prince”) and James (“World Revolution”), each proposes a distinct thinking of this series of relations. These three texts, as well as work by Alain Badiou, will be read to attend specifically to a critique of democracy – a question in which political failure plays a significant role.