Spring 2026
Literatures of Terror
Dates: January 28, 2026 - May 13, 2026Day/Time: Wednesday 8:00 AM - 10:20 AM EDT
Level: 300-Level
Certificate: Human Rights
Instructor: Zahid Rafiq, Bard College
The course will trace the figure of the rebel from the anarchist to the nihilist, the idealist to the revolutionary to the terrorist in order to trace the transformations of a figure that has been fundamental to the history and politics of the modern world. What do we learn about the dreams and despair, history and politics, of the modern world by turning to the figure of the rebel in literature? From Von Kleist's fanatic seeker of justice, Michael Kohlhass, to Peter Verkhovensky, Dostoyevsky’s manipulative nihilist mastermind, to the avenging monster raised from the dead in Ahmad Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad, we shall closely see the character of the rebel and the world they inhabit and the one they create around them. This course will mostly deal with representation of terror in fictional literature and film.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS