Anarchism and the Anarchist

Instructor:  Professor James P. Myers, Jr.
                 Department of English

The resistance of individuals to the oppressive machinery of the state has assumed great urgency in modern times. This course will explore historically representative literary and philosophical works which both challenge the assumptions by which states have justified their exploitation of power and focus on the necessity of resistance to political power structures. It will do so by concentrating on the literary figure of the anarchist down through nineteenth-century romanticism, stressing the movement's transcendental/individualist and socialist/syndicalist attitudes. It will conclude by examining several twentieth-century inquiries into and expressions of anarchist belief - biographies, novels, and protest movements.