Fascism and the Novel

During this seminar, we will read two novels that represent fascism: Paul Lynch's Prophet Song (winner of the 2023 Booker Prize) and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America (1991). We will think about how the novel genre and its formal malleability are used to mobilise thematic concerns that adhere to the notion of fascism. In particular, we will consider the narratological elements of focaliser, voice, discourse and time. Does the novel genre enable a convincing engagement with fascism as an experience? During the second part of the seminar, we will read extracts by writers such as Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler and bell hooks, and see how their theories enable us to deepen our understanding of the novels. Finally, you will be asked to make your own contributions to class: these could be from literary texts, but also from film, TV, or video games. If you wish, you may produce your own content in the form of creative writing. The idea is to bring the narratological and theoretical knowledge you will have gained to your understanding, analysis, or creation of texts that are meaningful to you.