Freedom, Fugitivity, and Imagination in US Fiction [6-weeks, $200 Suggested]

Instructor: Andrews | Mondays September 13-October 18 | 7:00-9:00 PM ET

In The Critique of Judgment (1790), Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant  argued that the imagination is a land of “lawless freedom,” and its “wings” needed to be “clipped” in order to produce the “reason” necessary for the lawful freedom of civilization. But it is no secret that civilization today does not result in “freedom” for most people who submit to its laws. In fact, much Enlightenment thinking, including Kant’s, played an important role in codifying race and gender difference in science and law, and imposing lack of freedom through patriarchy, colonization, and enslavement. So we must ask: How has the story we tell about the imagination and freedom “clipped the wings” of our actual possibilities for imagination and freedom and the stories we can tell? In this class about “fiction,” we’ll investigate the cultural fictions we’ve been told about civilization, law, order, reason, science, and even truth itself, and see how other fictions—those grounded in lawless, fugitive, and anarchic imaginations—actually engender visions and possibilities for freedom beyond the law. 

Readings will be wide ranging, including work by: Martin Delaney, Herman Melville, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Langston Hughes, Gayl Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Karla FC Holloway, Nicole Fleetwood, Franz Kafka, Frantz Fanon, Octavia Butler, Samuel Delaney, Fred Moten, Sarah Cervenak, Simone Browne, William Burroughs, and Paul Preciado.

We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees. 

If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.