The Individual vs. the State: Writings on Freedom and Oppression

This course features literary and philosophical works on the conflict between the individual and the state. We begin with theories of civil disobedience in ancient Greece and modern America, with readings from Plato, Sophocles, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King. What tools of resistance can be deployed in combating state injustice? We then examine the Russian and Soviet experiences. A rich tradition of prison writing (e.g. Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn) explores the clash between a powerful state and an embattled individual. What survival strategies (physical and spiritual) emerged in the Russian and Soviet contexts? All readings in English.