How has big business succeeded in making us speak its language? How have corporations won the campaign to make us “think…the way they think,” as novelist, David Foster Wallace puts it — to convince us to act politically in their interest and not our own? Since the economic implosion of 2008, the mantras of American exceptionalism, opportunity, meritocracy, hard work, personal responsibility, and the preeminence of American capitalism have been thrust to the fore of the national conversation — in some cases with unprecedented skepticism, in others with renewed vigor. In this class, we will read the work of authors and social critics who have responded to the cultural conditions ushered in by capitalism — both in its early and late stages. We will track the themes of alienation, domination, bureaucracy, boredom, public vs. private, and social vs. individual as we examine works of literary art and political-economic doctrine.