The upheaval in France beginning in 1789 was as much an historical as a literary and philosophical event, provoking an unprecedented spate of responses. Salient issues studied in this course include the nature of social demise, limits of state power, uses and disadvantages of freedom, and dangers of a violent contagion. Of concern is the use of literary texts as tools for responding to revolution. The course also explores the echoes of the Haitian Revolution in contemporary journalistic and philosophical texts.
