“REVOLUTION!”
In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong began chanting: “The Revolution of Our Times!” (时代革命). But what does that mean? If an era is entitled to its own revolution, what do all revolutions have in common? How are they different? Revolution seems to indicate a radical change: out with the old; in with the new! Yet the logic of being ‘against’ something means that the ‘old’ has a way of determining what the ‘new’ will be. Etymologically, “revolution” comes from an astronomical term “to turn around”; but after revolving, an orbiting body ends up right where it began. Historically, the post-revolutionary order often turns out to be as bad as—or worse than—the oppressive, undemocratic, non-egalitarian regime that was overturned. What determines whether a revolution will succeed or fail in its goals? How and why do revolutions go wrong? In this course, we will explore these questions through representations of revolutions in film, song, visual art, narrative, and drama. We'll watch Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, listen to Lin Manuel's Hamilton, read Hannah Arendt's On Revolution, and look at Hong Kong protest art.
Designed For:
Anyone interested in changing society, rebelling against authority, and discovering how revolutions play out in history, film, music, and literature.