POLITICS AND LITERATURE: JUSTICE IN THE POLITICAL IMAGINATION

Political Science 268-01, Spring 2015

Wed/Fri, 1:25-2:40PM in Gray 319
Nolan Bennett, nolan.bennett@duke.edu
Office Hours: Monday, 2-5PM in Gross Hall 294C
To know justice, James Baldwin wrote, requires we listen not to the judge but the testimony of
those who need the laws protection most. What is justice, and how should we define it? This
course examines key issues of political and moral justice as explored not through law or
philosophy, but literature: in novels, short stories, memoirs, letters, science fiction, and so on.
These works will offer students diverse arguments about justice to master and evaluate,
arguments that may frame justice as a hierarchical system of governance, as utopian, as an
ethical way of life, as meritocratic individualism, as a form of individual resistance or revenge,
or as reconciliation. Students will engage in advanced discussion, critique, and writing on
political theory that challenges participants to relate issues of justice not simply through readings
but as these issues concern politics today. This semester, students will study selections that
include Sophocles Antigone, Charlotte Perkin Gilmans Herland, Franz Kafkas In the Penal
Colony, Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged, J.M. Coetzees Waiting for the Barbarians, Arthur
Koestlers Darkness at Noon, Louise Erdrichs The Round House, Alexander Berkmans Prison
Memoirs of an Anarchist, and short stories by Ursula Le Guin and Philip K. Dick.
Required Materials
The following materials are available at Dukes textbook store, and on reserve at Perkins library:
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Plato, Plato: Republic (978-0872201361)

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (978-141640267)
Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays (978-0140444254)
Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno (978-0486264738)
Louise Erdrich, The Round House (978-0062065254)
J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (978-143116929)

Three of the books well read are available online for free, or in cheap editions at the store and
on reserve. Links for these books and additional readings are available on Sakai:
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Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (978-0486290386)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (978-0486404295)
Horatio Alger Jr., Ragged Dick (978-1591940807)

Course Expectations
Assignments: You will be responsible for a short reflection paper, a discussion paper, two
analytic papers (5-7 pages each), and a final take-home exam. Most assignments will provide
you an option of prompts to answer. I will evaluate papers on your ability to adequately respond
to the prompt, analyze and make use of course materials, and provide a comprehensive
argument. If you have any questions about writing a college essay, please see me in advance.

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Participation: Please come to class ready to discuss the course readings as well as your notes and
writing. A top goal of the course is to foster a comfortable environment for talking about
political ideas and opinions: as our course will often be complex and contentious, please remain
respectful of others and yourself. Receiving a good participation grade requires you to ask
questions and engage in conversation. Of course, students have varying comfort levels for
speaking up, so please chat with me in office hours or email if you find it difficult to contribute.
If you are unable to attend class for a legitimate reason (illness, family emergency, etc.), please
contact me in advance. More than one unexcused absence will diminish your grade.
Guidelines for Written Work: Unless otherwise stated, you must submit a hard copy of an
assignment in the beginning of class. Written work must be typed in 12-point standard font (e.g.
Times New Roman) and double-spaced, with one-inch margins, 0-point spacing after lines, and
page numbers. All evidence must be cited in accordance with MLA or Chicago format. If you are
unsure of these rules and requirements, see me or consult a style handbook.
Grading: Grades in a seminar are never a science, but the following breakdown should help you
weigh priorities in the course. Although papers are individually graded, I do take into
consideration your progress and improvement over the course.
Participation (with reflection and discussion papers)
Analytic paper 1
Analytic paper 2
Final exam

20%
25%
25%
30%

Other Matters
Office Hours: I hold office hours every Monday, 2-5PM in Gross Hall 294C. These hours are a
great time to discuss your work, the readings, or politics and life in general. Though Ill inform
the class if I need to miss office hours, I recommend you let me know if you plan to drop in. If
you cant make these hours, email me to schedule another meeting time.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense at Duke, and consists of knowingly misrepresenting
anothers work as your own. This can apply to buying papers online or misappropriating an
authors words or research without reference. You can find a helpful tutorial on plagiarism at
https://plagiarism.duke.edu. If you have questions about citing sources, see me in advance.
Disabilities: Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class
are encouraged to contact the Student Disability Access Office at (919) 668-1267 as soon as
possible to better ensure that such accommodations can be implemented in a timely fashion.
More information can be found at http://access.duke.edu/students.
Additional Writing Help: If you seek additional writing help beyond the scope of the course, I
encourage you to visit the Thompson Centers writing studio. More information can be found at
http://twp.duke.edu/writing-studio.

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Course Schedule
Readings and assignments are to be completed by their corresponding date. Optional readings
are additional selections that may improve your mastery of the material, but arent required.
Further readings are longer or more advanced texts for future interest in the courses themes.
Readings marked (S) are available on Sakai.
WEEK I:
Imagining Justice
How do we define justice today, and how have others defined it in history? Is justice best defined
through philosophy, policy, public opinion, or through some other means? Is justice objective
moral, religious, transcendent or does it depend on culture, history, choice? Why might
literature provide a unique way for thinking through definitions and difficulties of justice?
WEEK II:
Socratess Just Polis
Why did Plato and, through him, Socrates and his colleagues set out to imagine a just city in
The Republic? How do Socrates and his interlocutors plan their ideal city? What sorts of roles do
citizens play: how are these roles defined, and how are citizens convinced to play them? How
would you describe the literary style of The Republic?
Jan. 14:
Optional:

Reflection paper handed out

Plato, The Republic (1-43)
Introduction to The Republic (viii-xviii)

Jan. 16:

Plato, The Republic (43-51, 89-98, 102-121)

WEEK III:
Justice and Hierarchy
In Platos Republic, a just society determined hierarchy by individual aptitude. Why construct a
society in which only the most elite the Philosopher Kings know what justice is? Can you
imagine other reasons for hierarchy (e.g. merit, birth, intelligence) that might promote a just
society? How would you define politics in Platos ideal city, and how does the city compare to
contemporary, democratically-governed nations? If utopia required just one, secret person to
suffer, would it still be utopia? Does this change your impression of Socratess city?
Jan. 21:
Optional:

Reflection paper due in class

Plato, The Republic (146-176, 186-193, 232-234)
Plato (131-141, 177-185)

Jan. 23:
Further:

Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (S)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

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WEEK IV:
Other Utopias
To find justice, Socrates and his colleagues imagined a utopian polis rooted in justice. How have
other authors imagined utopian societies? Do these utopias foster different concepts of justice?
Are readers meant to read utopias as practical alternatives, or as reflective metaphors? In other
words, could these utopias really happen, and does that really matter? Do these questions depend
upon whether the utopia is from the future or found in an isolated part of the world?
Jan. 28:
Further:

Jan. 30:
Further:

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (S)

(Dover: 1-6, 10-19, 23-36, 41-8, 53-5, 73-74, 87-95, 97-102)
William Morris, News from Nowhere
Alexander Bogdanov, Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia
Myra Page, Moscow Yankee
Lois Lowry, The Giver
George Orwell, Animal Farm
Analytic paper 1 handed out
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (S) (Dover: 1-20, 45-61, 72-83)
Thomas More, Utopia
B.F. Skinner, Walden Two
Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis

WEEK V:
The Instruments of Justice
Justice concerns not simply a societys organization and laws, but how it responds to crime.
What sort of punitive procedures do we associate with a just society? How should governments
assess and punish crime? Who controls those procedures, and what happens when the tools of
justice are turned back on their creators? Should citizens be required to know the law, intend to
break the law, or feel guilty about breaking the law, in order for these procedures to be just?
Feb. 4:

Philip K. Dick, The Minority Report (S)

Feb. 6:

Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony (S)

WEEK VI:
State Justice and Guilt
Governments that emerge from revolution are often challenged to maintain peace after periods of
unrest: in Soviet Russia, the government sought peace through sustaining a single-party system.
Is it possible to retain just procedures or objectives under these circumstances? What is the role
of justice in revolution or in a single-party system? How much should party members sacrifice to
sustain the larger organization? If a member finds herself the target of revolutionary justice, to
what degree is her guilt or knowledge of alleged crimes relevant to the stability of society?
Feb. 11:
Further:

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (1-97)

Whittaker Chambers, Witness

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Feb. 13:
Further:

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (98-146)

Franz Kafka, Before the Law (S)
Franz Kafka, The Trial
The Bible, Book of Job

WEEK VII: State Justice and Freedom

What makes an individual complicit in injustice? Are there ever situations in which an individual
should confess for crimes he or she did not commit? Does justice necessarily require freedom? If
so, how should we define freedom? If not, is there a way for individuals to choose between
freedom and justice? In light of the concerns prompted by last weeks readings, how should
governments choose between justice, freedom, and peace? In the Republic, Thrasymachus
argued that justice means might is right: is this true of these two weeks readings?
Feb. 18:
Further:

Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon (146-272)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

Feb. 20:

Analytic paper 1 due in class

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Grand Inquisitor (S)
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
George Orwell, 1984

Further:

WEEK VIII: Merit and Just Desserts

How does a capitalist society envision justice? Should social or political ranks base themselves
on merit? On property? Can we distinguish easily between merit and property (say, in issues of
inheritance)? Are there fundamental assumptions about human nature, history, and fate upon
which this vision relies? Does this type of justice require a small, local context, or can you
imagine it working in a global environment? What type of government might this kind of justice
demand? How might this view of justice enhance or inhibit equality?
Feb. 25:
Further:

Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (S) (Chapters 1-14)

Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Platt & Munk, The Little Engine that Could

Feb. 27:
Further:

Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (S) (Chapters 15-27)

Nathanael West, A Cool Million

WEEK IX:
Justice as Radical Freedom
Should individuals always conform to social standards of justice? Is it possible to have an
individual vision of justice that transcends or disregards society? Or is even the most radically
free concept of individuality somehow dependent on particular social arrangements? What ideas
do these transgressive individuals base their supremacy on: utility, individual happiness, power,
or something else? How would you compare these characters to Algers protagonist?

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Mar. 4:
Further:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (S)

Albert Camus, The Stranger

Mar. 6:

Analytic paper 2 handed out

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (S)

SPRING BREAK: Mar. 7-16 (Begin reading Louise Erdrichs The Round House)
WEEK X:
Above an Unjust Polis
What is the difference between a transcendent or religious idea of justice, and one decided by a
nation or government? Are there political disputes or issues in which one justice is preferable
over the other? In the event of a dispute between the two, how should individuals respond: by
conforming to law, or rebelling against it? Or is this tension resolved by the type of government?
Could democracy solve this problem, or does modern politics suggest otherwise?
Mar. 18, 20: Sophocles, Antigone in The Three Theban Plays
Optional:
Introduction to Antigone (35-53)
Further:
Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, Inherit the Wind
WEEK XI:
Justice behind Bars
In an unjust society, Henry David Thoreau wrote, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
Should individuals engage in illegal acts to dissent against unjust authority? What is the
rhetorical appeal of writing from prison? How do we as rebels, onlooking citizens, or members
of the government decide whether these acts are just or simply unlawful? Should dissenters
appeal to religion, popular sentiment, or something else?
Mar. 25:
Further:

Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (S)

David Walker, An Appeal to the Colored Citizens (S)
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Mar. 27:
Further:

Alexander Berkman, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (S)

Emile Zola, Jaccuse! (S)

WEEK XII: Collective Retribution

Most of the rebels weve encountered have relied on peaceful or individual means of resistance.
Can justice ever be violent? What are the conditions necessary for just violence: the type of
society, the experience of oppression, the perspective of the actor and victim? Can violence ever
be emancipatory or progressive? By what criteria should non-participants evaluate violence and
the individuals that commit it? How does civil disobedience change when practiced in concert?
Apr. 1:
Further:

Herman Melville, Benito Cereno

Herman Melville, Billy Budd

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Apr. 3:
Further:

Analytic paper 2 due in mailbox by 3PM

Thomas Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner (S)
Frederick Douglass, The Heroic Slave
Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino

WEEK XIII: Sovereignty and Revenge

Few modern societies endorse eye for an eye as an adequate standard of justice. But can
revenge ever be just? Is revenge always violent? How does it compare to other kinds of
resistance those of Antigone, Berkman, or Turner? How might revenge allow individuals to
take the tools of justice into their own hands? Is revenge always in response to an isolated
incentive, or can it reflect a broader issue of social injustice? In this weeks reading, how does
revenge reflect the issues of sovereignty that face those living on American Indian reservations?
Apr. 8, 10:
Further:

Louise Erdrich, The Round House

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

WEEK XIV: Facing an Unjust History

How does history influence our discussions of justice? How do the acts of those before us
influence contemporary political issues? Should justice be ideal as in Platos example, removed
from history and the real world or grounded in todays conditions and histories of injustice?
Can justice be both? How might an historical conception of justice impact political protest,
philosophy, or policy differently than an ideal conception?
Apr. 15:
Further:

J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (1-87)

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Rabbit-Proof Fence, directed by Phillip Noyce

Apr. 17:
Further:

J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (89-180)

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

WEEK XV: Justice, Yesterday and Tomorrow

How should future generations approach and amend historical injustices? What sort of methods
can we use to prepare those who succeed us? Is there value in imagining history as though it had
occurred differently? How would you compare this counterfactual history to utopian fiction?
Does focusing on the past or future risk our attention to present concerns? Looking back on the
course, what sort of tools visions of government, arguments for resistance, moral claims, etc.
should we draw from these imaginations of justice, as we tackle real-world problems today?
Apr. 22:
Optional:
Further:

James Baldwin, Letter to My Nephew (S)

Terry Bisson, Fire on the Mountain (S)
Jane Elizabeth Jones, The Young Abolitionists (S)
Julia Ward Howe, The Battle Hymn of the Republic/John Browns Body
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, directed by Kevin Willmott