Hosseini, Mir Ali

This class explores central ideas in critical theory. We will focus on a
set of concepts—universalism, critique, emancipation—that continue to
provoke intense debate because they are often held to constitute the
heart of Eurocentrism. Our guiding concepts are indeed rooted in the
European Enlightenment—the 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement
that promoted reason over tradition as a means of understanding the
world and improving the human condition. In the twentieth century,
following devastating experiences such as extreme poverty, modern
warfare, totalitarianism, concentration camps, and unprecedented
technological exploitation of the earth, critical theorists began
questioning the Enlightenment ideal of rationality. Is reason alone
sufficient to save humanity from itself? Is the ideal of reason
sometimes used to dehumanize those considered less “rational”? Is reason
itself not a myth?


In this course, we will examine texts in the Enlightenment tradition,
but we will also critique the ideas articulated in these texts through
the perspectives of twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers.

Politicians, pundits, op-ed writers, TikTokers, and YouTubers across the
political spectrum appeal to the authority of George Orwell as a
freedom fighter and truth-teller who prophesied about state
surveillance, totalitarianism, forever wars, and the doom of humanity.
This reified image of Orwell, however, often obscures the complexities
and nuances of his works, which responded to specific historical and
political contexts in which they were written.

In this course, we will contextualize and explore some of Orwell’s
famous texts as well as some of his lesser-known writings. By reading
his essays and novels closely, we will discuss the literary, political,
and philosophical commitments that animated and complicated Orwell’s
work. Through this exploration, students will gain a critical
understanding of how Orwell’s writings engaged with the tumultuous era
in which he lived and will rethink his contemporary relevance.