In times of tyranny and political turmoil, we often command ourselves not to give in to despair. The reasons for this directive would seem obvious: hope is a necessary condition for action and change, whereas despair leads to resignation and more of the same—or so the logic goes. But is this logic really that self-evident? How exactly did we come to believe that “action is impossible without hope” (as Rebecca Solnit has it)? Why is despair “not an option” (as the Bernie Sanders slogan says)? And what possibilities emerge when despair is seen as a reasonable orientation toward the political order, rather than a temptation to avoid at all costs?

This course explores the literature and theory of political despair. Through studying a variety of texts—ranging from Romantic-era poems to recent Afropessimist theories—we’ll examine how hope and despair became political concepts, interrogate their role in sustaining different forms of violence and oppression, and consider what relevance they hold in our own historical moment. Students will be asked to make connections between different readings, to identify additional cultural texts that speak to our topic, and to make regular entries in a reading journal.

Possible authors include W. H. Auden, James Baldwin, Walter Benjamin, Lauren Berlant, Dionne Brand, Bertolt Brecht, Anne Anlin Cheng, W. E. B. Du Bois, Lee Edelman, Saidiya Hartman, Cathy Park Hong, Karl Marx, Toni Morrison, Fred Moten, Claudia Rankine, Adrienne Rich, Christina Sharpe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charlotte Smith, Calvin Warren, Frank Wilderson, and William Wordsworth.