Literature as Resistance: Recognizing, Unmasking and Countering Totalitarian Tendencies

Thursdays evenings, 7pm ET, 1.5 hr - First Class Sept 7, 2023

Throughout the course, students will use the texts to examine themes within technocratic/dictatorial systems such as:

• Control of information to influence behavior
• Elevation of knowledge, science, technology, and scientific class
• Promotion of materialist paradigm
• Separation of man from God or the Transcendent
• Atomization of individuals and assimilation into societal mass
• Resistance to influence from systems of control

Lesson 1:

Lesson Tasks:

• Introductions of students (backgrounds, interests, reasons for taking course, etc)
• Define terms: dystopia, technocracy, scientific dictatorship, etc)
• Discuss historical development & emergence of dystopian literature as genre

Lesson Objective: Students get to know one another and understand relevant terms related to dystopian literature as a genre of fiction and its historical development.

Lesson 2:

Lesson Tasks:

• Recognize Elements of Plot in Literature
• Understand historical examples of technocracies & scientific dictatorships
• Recognize recent and modern forms of technocratic control
• Introduction to E.M. Forster and “The Machine Stops”
• Discussion of “The Machine Stops,” its relevant themes, and applications to our contemporary day.
• Introduction to George Orwell and 1984.
• Discuss Section One of 1984, relevant plot development, literary themes, and applications of warning and insights to our current day.
• Discuss Section Two of 1984, relevant plot development to this point, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Discuss Section Three of 1984, relevant plot development to this point, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Conduct summation of entire work and its relevant insights applicable to us.
• Compare and contrast Orwell’s dystopian vision with Forster’s.
• Introduce Aldous Huxley and Brave New World.
• Discuss Chapters 1-5 of Brave New World, relevant plot development as novel opens
• Discuss Chapters 6-11 of Brave New World, relevant plot development to this point, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Discuss Chapters 12-18 of Brave New World, relevant plot development to this point, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Conduct summation of entire work and its relevant insights for us today.
• Compare and contrast Huxley’s dystopian vision and insights with Forster’s and Orwell’s.
• Read essay: “Brave New World, Plato’s Republic, and Our Scientific Regime.”
• Discuss essay: “Brave New World, Plato’s Republic, and Our Scientific Regime.”
• Introduce Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451.
• Discuss Part 1 of Fahrenheit 451, relevant plot development as novel opens and
• Discuss Part 2 of Fahrenheit 451, relevant plot development, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Discuss Part 3, Appendix, and Coda of Fahrenheit 451, relevant plot development as novel closes, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Conduct summation of novel.
• Compare and contrast Bradbury’s dystopian future with that of Forster, Orwell, or Huxley.
• Introduction to We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
• Discuss Records 1-12 of We, relevant plot development as novel opens and begins to progress, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Discuss Records 13-27 of We, relevant plot development as novel progresses, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Discuss Records 28-40 and Notes of We, relevant plot resolution as novel closes, literary themes, and applications to our current day.
• Conduct summation of novel.
• Compare and contrast Zamyatin’s dystopian vision with that of Forster, Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury.
• Introduction to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
• Discuss Metropolis.
• Compare and contrast Lang’s dystopian vision in Metropolis with that of Forster, Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, and Zamyatin.
• Watch Planned-opolis youtube video.
• Discuss works used throughout course and the various visions presented by the
• Discuss the relevance of their warnings, depictions, and/or insights to today or the immediate future.
• Discuss methods to decrease our vulnerability to these types of control systems.

• Recognize Literary Devices

Lesson Objective: Students understand methods used by authors of fiction to construct narratives and convey information to reader.

Next Assignment:

Students will prepare short oral presentation (5 min) on a historical example of a technocracy/scientific dictatorship.

Lesson 3:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students understand characteristics of technocracies & scientific dictatorships and recognize examples of how various types of these systems have existed over time. Students are prepared with requisite background knowledge to read “The Machine Stops.”

Next Assignment:

Read “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster.

Lesson 4:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize themes in a dystopian short story and are more prepared to undertake a more complex reading in 1984.

Next Assignment:

Read Section One of 1984.

Lesson 5:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements that might inform our view of present day.

Assignment:

Read Section Two of 1984.

Lesson 6:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented thus far in the text.

Next Assignment:

Read Section Three of 1984.

Lesson 7:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented throughout entirety of 1984. Students are prepared to read Brave New World.

Next Assignment:

Read Chapters 1-5 of Brave New World.

Lesson 8:

Lesson Tasks:

and progresses, literary themes, and applications to our current day.

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented throughout first five chapters of novel.

Next Assignment:

Read Chapters 6-11 of Brave New World.

Lesson 9:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented thus far in the text.

Next Assignment:

Read Chapters 12-18 of Brave New World.

Lesson 10:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented throughout novel.

Next Assignment:

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/brave-new-world-platos-republic-and-our-scientific-regime

Lesson 11:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize the historical longevity of technocratic ideas. Students are prepared to read Fahrenheit 451.

Next Assignment:

Read Part 1 of Fahrenheit 451.

Lesson 12:

Lesson Task:

begins to progress, literary themes, and applications to our current day.

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented through Part 1.

Next Assignment:

Read Part 2 of Fahrenheit 451.

Lesson 13:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented thus far through Parts 1&2 of novel.

Next Assignment:

Read Part 3 of Fahrenheit 451, Appendix, and Coda.

Lesson 14:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented throughout Fahrenheit 451. Students are prepared to read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Next Assignment:

Read Records 1-12 of We.

Lesson 15:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented through opening and beginning Records.

Next Assignment:

Read Records 13-27 of We.

Lesson 16:

Lesson Task:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented thus far throughout novel.

Next Assignment:

Read Records 28-40 and Notes of We.

Lesson 17:

Lesson Tasks:

Lesson Objective: Students recognize literary themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented throughout novel. Students are prepared to view Metropolis.

Next Assignment:

Watch Metropolis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_4no842TX8

Lesson 18:

Lesson Tasks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSvb_ZTYS6A

Lesson Objective: Students recognize themes and devices as well as recognize

relevant insights on dystopian elements presented in Metropolis and how to apply those to today.

Lesson 19:

Lesson Tasks:

• Discuss works used throughout course and the various visions presented by the
• Discuss the relevance of their warnings, depictions, and/or insights to today or the immediate future.
• Discuss methods to decrease our vulnerability to these types of control systems.

For Reference and Material for Part II or continuance…

George Orwell:

"Politics and the English Language"

Philip K. Dick:

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

"The Minority Report"

Margaret Atwood:

"The Handmaid's Tale"

"In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination"

Neal Stephenson:

"Snow Crash"

Yuval Noah Harari:

"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow"

William Gibson:

"Neuromancer"

Cory Doctorow:

"Little Brother"

Dave Eggers:

"The Circle"

Shoshana Zuboff:

"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power"

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Solzhenitsyn's works, such as "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago," expose the horrors of Soviet totalitarianism and delve into questions of human dignity, resistance, and the search for meaning in oppressive systems.

Leo Tolstoy: Tolstoy's exploration of morality, spirituality, and the individual's struggle against societal norms can provide philosophical perspectives on themes of freedom and oppressive systems.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Dostoevsky's works, including "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov," delve into psychological depth, morality, existentialism, and the consequences of totalitarian ideologies.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Solzhenitsyn's works, such as "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago," expose the horrors of Soviet totalitarianism and delve into questions of human dignity, resistance, and the search for meaning in oppressive systems.

Leo Tolstoy: Tolstoy's exploration of morality, spirituality, and the individual's struggle against societal norms can provide philosophical perspectives on themes of freedom and oppressive systems.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Dostoevsky's works, including "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov," delve into psychological depth, morality, existentialism, and the consequences of totalitarian ideologies.

Mattias Desment – “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” - 2022