The Subversion of Political and Cultural Authority in U.S. Culture

Annotation

OBJECTIVES

An examination of the historical and contemporary cultural dynamics that have worked effectively to devalorize deference and to subvert both political and cultural authority in the U.S. Readings will include selections from

Emerson, Tocqueville, Thoreau, Melville, William James, Henry James, Nietzsche, Poirier, Rorty, Pynchon, Tom

Robbins, and Ayn Rand.

Requirements and Reading to follow