POL446H1F L0101
Graduate Course Code: POL2007H1F L0101
20th-Century Political Thought
Themes
This course will focus on 20th century Marxist thought. We will examine some key Marxist concepts such as historical materialism, ideology, class struggle, and alienation. Writing in the early 1920s, Antonio Gramsci asked why revolution had not occurred in Western Europe as Marxist theory had predicted. Gramsci developed the theory of hegemony in order to answer this question. In the post-WW II period, critical theorists explored a related puzzle: why haven’t workers used democratic institutions to secure social equality? This question seems even more pressing today in our era of rising economic inequality. This course approaches the relationship between democracy and equality from the perspective of critical theory rather than normative philosophy. Most of the class will focus on close readings of the assigned texts, but we will also place these texts in their historical context. Students will be asked to select one recent (post-2008 financial crisis) book to read and present to the class.
Texts
Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Rancière, Claude Lefort, Wendy Brown, Henri Lefebvre, and Axel Honneth
Format and Requirements
One two-hour seminar per week. Course requirements: reaction papers, a research paper and class participation.
Prerequisites
POL200Y1 or POL200Y5 or (POLC70H3 & POLC71H3)