Brain Fuel

Adolph Hitler’s use of film, literature, and music as propaganda tools during the Nazi era offers an important cautionary tale against the mix of art and politics, and yet art has a long, effective history of expressing political ideas that can respond to world events and even lead to major change. This course examines the responses of literature and film to the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath, considering the different goals, strategies, and effects of texts ranging from blockbuster Hollywood films to literary fiction. Professor Goldberg explores the responsibility of the artist in a time of dramatic cultural and political upheaval and in a time of war by examining films by Stephen Spielberg and Oliver Stone as well as novels by Phillip Roth and John Updike. What can we learn from cultural texts about the events that have changed all of our lives so dramatically?