i'm gonna talk that freedom talk, let me see you walk that freedom walk,
when yah gets ready, children please, a tell yah, got the news from a
whispering tree ...
-Bob Marley
This course examines a wide range of cultural productions from different locations, including carnivals, music, film, literature, philosophy and other texts, in order to engage with the notion of freedom at the center of nation-state histories. Rather than assume that citizenship guarantees freedom and equality, this course investigates the ways in which citizenship is partial and incomplete-a process rather than a status. We will read work from the liberal tradition (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau) as well as a number of essays that will help us define some of the major terms for the class. We then turn to alternative imaginings as they maneuver around and challenge official ideologies, often through unexpected venues (Wyclef Jean’s lyrics, Christopher Cozier’s art, etc.)
Questions we will ask during the course include: How is popular culture implicated in producing practices of unfreedoms, like homophobia, racism, sexism, classism even as it critiques undemocratic practices in the public sphere? What gets reproduced in rounds of discussions of freedoms, unfreedoms and power? What sorts of hopes are expressed in the carnivals of our existence? What sorts of freedoms imagined?
Co-taught by an arts/humanities professor and a social science professor, we invite students from a wide range of backgrounds who might have an interest in freedom and democracy.
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