Syllabus
1) Introduction
2) Francis Fukuyama, Identity. The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2018, The Politics of Dignity (Ch. I); The Third Part of the Soul (Ch. II).
3) Ibid. Inside and Outside (Ch. III); From Dignity to Democracy (Ch. IV).
4) Ibid. Revolutions of Dignity (Ch. V); Expressive Individualism (Ch. VI).
5) Nationalism and Religion (Ch. VII); The Wrong Address (Ch. VIII).
6) Invisible Man (Ch. IX); The Democratization of Dignity (Ch. X).
7) Pankaj Mishra, Age of Anger. A History of the Present, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2017, A Prolog: Forgotten Conjunctures (Ch. I).
8) Ibid. Clearing a Space: History’s Winners and Their Illusions (Ch. II).
9) Ibid. Loving Oneself Through Others: Progress and Its Contradictions (Ch. III).
10) Ibid. Losing My Religion: Islam, Secularism, and Revolution (Ch. IV).
11) Ibid. Regaining My Religion: Nationalism Unbound (Ch. V-1); Messianic Visions (V-2).
12) Ibid. Finding True Freedom and Equality: The Heritage of Nihilism (Ch. VI).
13) Ibid. Epilogue: Finding Reality (Ch. VII).
Annotation
The purpose of the course is to juxtapose two different accounts of the radical movements of recent years which have been driven by anger and resentment. The liberal-conservative interpretation is provided by Francis Fukuyama’s book Identity.
Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018). Fukuyama traces the turmoil to the basic tendency of man to seek symbolic recognition that has been allowed to show its dark side by flawed socio-economic and political institutions.
Hence, the appropriate response is to correct those flaws: curb socio-economic inequalities and make secure an inclusive national identity within the liberal-democratic state. Pankaj Mishra provides a much more somber picture in his Age of Anger.
A History of the Present (2017). He traces the anger back to modernization itself that by its very nature divides spaces and societies into cores and peripheries, winners and losers.
The radicality of his diagnosis, however, does not allow him to propose any realistic solution: if the source of resentments that fuel present revolts and polarizations lies at the very center of the system, any solution short of its replacement will not do.