Workers of the World: Representations of Labor in Literature

Course description: Time is money. At least that’s what we’re told. It’s strange to imagine that you could put a price on hours and minutes, but this is precisely what we do at the workplace. This course will explore literary and visual texts that challenge our assumptions about how human time and human lives should be valued. Readings from authors of philosophical and fictional works will include Marx, Orwell, Sartre, Melville and Woolf. We will also view selected films in the science fiction and magic-realist genres that imagine futuristic forms of labor, such as Brazil, Metropolis and Dark City.

Course objectives: To explore the historical relationship between Capital, Labor and Democracy in the United States; and to use great thinkers as guideposts in the formulation of ideas concerning our immediate future as well as our shared long-term goals – where do we agree and where do we differ in our concepts of freedom and equality?

Course requirements: Students are expected to attend every scheduled class meeting and to participate fully in class discussions. This necessarily requires that each student complete all required reading assignments. Students’ final grade will be based on grades earned from one examination, one long paper (5 pages), various short in-class writing assignments, attendance, and class participation:

1. final paper and other written work 50% of final grade

2. final exam 40% of final grade

3. attendance/class participation 10%

Required texts/textbooks

Herman Melville, Bartleby

Dover, ISBN 0486-264734 (free on Google Books and Amazon Kindle)

Ha Jin, In The Pond

Studs Terkel, Hard Times

Tillie Olsen, Yonnondio: From the Thirties