AAS 4040 - Fictions of Dictatorship

(crosslisted) COML 4040, SHUM 4040
(GB) (LA-AS, GLC-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

C. Balance.

Fictions of dictatorship, as termed by scholar Lucy Burns, denote both the narratives and spectacles produced by authoritarian governments and the performances, events, and cultural objects that work against these states of exception. This course will critically examine histories of dictatorships, through both documentary & creative forms (i.e. novels, memoirs, and performance) and with a geographic focus on Asia and Latin America, in order to understand authoritarian returns in our present historical moment.