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Honors 131-006: Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives
Dictatorship and Dissent
Fall 2014
Dr. S. Bakhash
Class hours: Tuesday & Thursday 3 – 4:15, West Bldg. 1007
Office hours: Tuesday, 10:30 am to 12 pm and by appointment, 207 East Building
Tel: 703 993 2178
email: [email protected]
As laid out most graphically in the novels and essays of the Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
totalitarian states and autocracies create elaborate systems of prisons and incarceration camps, secret police
and interrogators, courts and jailers to silence dissidents, critics, human rights advocates, independent artists
and intellectuals and anyone, in short, who refuses to conform to the ideology and policies of the state.
Solzhenitsyn also recounts the manner in which often courageous and also very ordinary men and women cope
when caught in these fearful webs of repression—how they attempt to remain whole, retain their dignity and
integrity, avoid surrender. Taking Solzhenitsyn as our starting point, we will use fiction and prison memoirs
from Russia, China, Nazi Germany, and Iran in this course to examine the nature of the repressive apparatus of
the authoritarian state and the response of the men and women who fall victim to it.
Course requirements
Students will be expected to have read the entire reading assignment for each week at the beginning of the
week. I will ask you to write four short papers based on the books we read. Participation in classroom
discussion is an essential part of your performance in this course. The papers are due September 18, October 9,
November 4, and November 25. The final exam will be in the form of a longer, take-home essay and is
designed to test your ability to write on the broader issues raised in the course and to compare and contrast the
manner in which the various authors we have read approach these issues.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Short papers:
70 per cent
Final exam papers:
30 per cent
There are five required texts (available at the bookstore):
A. Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Natan Sharansky: Fear No Evil
Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz
Nien Cheng: Life and Death in Shanghai
Haleh Esfandiari, My Prison, My Home
Weekly reading assignments
Week 1 (ending August 31)
Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life, “Forward” and pp. 1-57
Week 2 (ending September 7)
Solzhenitsyn, pp. 57-144
Week 3 (ending September 14)
Sharansky, Fear No Evil, “Preface” and 1-67, 90-120
Week 4 (ending September 21)
Honors 131: Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives -
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Sharansky, 121-169, 183-242
Paper one: on One Day in the Life due Thurs. Sept. 18
Week 5 (ending September 28)
Sharansky, 271-285, 330-418
Week 6: (ending ending October 5)
Primo Levy, Survival in Auschwitz, 1-79
Week 7: (ending ending October 12)
Primo Levy, 80-168
(No class on Tuesday, Oct. 14, Columbus Day recess)
Paper two: on Fear No Evil, due on Thurs. Oct. 9
Week 8: (ending ending October 19)
Nien Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai, 1-122
Week 9: (ending ending October 26)
Nien Cheng, 123-242
Week 10 (ending November 2)
Nien Cheng, 243-333
Week 11 (ending November 9)
Nien Cheng, 334-354, 479-543
Paper three: on Survival in Auschwitz due Tues. Nov. 4
Week 12 (ending November 16)
Esfandiari, My Prison, My Home, 1-88
Week 13 (ending November 23)
Esfandiari, 89-154
Week 14 (ending November 30)
Esfandiari, 155-223
Paper four: on Life and Death in Shanghai due on Tues. Nov. 25
(No class on Thurs. Nov. 27, Thanksgiving break)
Week 15: (ending December 7)
Review
Final exam papers are due in my office on Tues. December 16 no later than 1:30 pm
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