| Unit name | Political Thought in the Age of Les Miserables |
|---|---|
| Unit code | SPAI30011 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Brooke |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Victor Hugo’s extraordinary novel Les Misérables was a best-seller when it was first published in 1862, and his epic story, sprawling across the early nineteenth century with its cast of unforgettable characters, continues to grip imaginations today, most notably through the blockbuster 1980s musical and its recent adaptation for the cinema. The period is also remarkable in France for its rich body of political writing. Modern conservatism, liberalism, socialism, anarchism, and communism take shape during these decades—all, in their various ways, reactions to the great French Revolution of 1789 and its aftermath. In this course, we will be exploring some of this political literature in English translation, with an eye in particular on the novel’s distinctive themes. Authors to be studied include Benjamin Constant, Joseph de Maistre, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Flora Tristan, and, of course, Victor Hugo.
The unit aims (i) to explore how the study of political thought and the reading of classic fiction can be mutually illuminating, (ii) to consider modern political ideologies in one of their most important original contexts—France in the first half of the nineteenth century—and (iii) to encourage reflection on a variety of important topics in politics, including violence (both state and non-state), religion, poverty, and gender.
After taking this unit, students will be familiar with some of the major political events in France in the first half of the nineteenth century; they will have some knowledge of the arguments of the major political texts of the period, and experience in analysing those arguments; they will know something about the relevant history that has decisively shaped the development of modern political ideologies; they will be well placed to get more than hitherto out of their reading of historical fiction in the future; and they will have deepened the various skills that are involved in the production of the long paper.
1 hour lecture and 2 hour seminar.
There will be no exam. Formative requirements will be one in-class presentation and a 1,500 word essay, due around the end of the seventh week of the course. The summative requirement will be a 3,000 word essay, due at the end of the course, on any topic connected to the themes of the course (to be approved by me).
Both the formative and summative coursework link to learning outcomes 1-4.
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (e.g., in Penguin Classics translation) (1862). Victor Hugo, Napoleon the Little (1852) Benjamin Constant, On the Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns (1819) Flora Tristan, The Workers’ Union (1843) Charles Fourier [selections]. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property? (1840)
