360°: Revolutions
How do different kinds of revolutions feed one another? How do art, culture and politics work together to form and normalize or defang the radicalism of the new order?
How do different kinds of revolutions feed one another? How do art, culture and politics work together to form and normalize or defang the radicalism of the new order?
Political revolutions. Cultural revolutions. Artistic revolutions. Sexual revolutions. We use the word "revolution" to describe all kinds of upheavals, but how do these different kinds of revolutions feed one another? How, in other words, how does art inspire political change? Or vice versa? How do dramatic shifts in gender and sexual norms drive broader cultural overthrow? And how, in the wake of revolution, do art, culture and politics work together to form and normalize or even sometimes defang the radicalism of the new order? Focus ranges across the three courses to cover multiple revolutionary moments, but our two strongest anchors in time and place are Philadelphia during the American Revolution (1775-1778) and Prague during the Velvet Revolution (1989), while “Revolution in Modern European History,” with its historical overview of revolutions, provides the historical foundation to the cluster.
In addition to scholarly work, the coursework includes field trips to Philadelphia and a week-long class trip to Prague where we focus on the political and artistic history of the Velvet Revolution, meeting and working with artists who were involved and continue in the revolutionary tradition. We also experience Prague as an historical city with important ties to the so-called “Enlightenment” and “Age of Revolution” out of which the foment of the American Revolution grew. We meet with Czech revolutionaries who participated in the 1968 Prague Spring. Across the semester, we develop a performance that we workshop in Prague and bring back to Bryn Mawr.
Courses
We look at and engage with the tradition of revolutionary acts of theater, such as Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, which used plays to critique social issues and incite change, The Living Theatre's performances protesting war and capitalism, Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed empowering marginalized communities, and more recently, the movement started by We See You W.A.T. (White American Theater). Our readings also include plays by Vaclav Haval that influenced Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution. We create our own piece of revolutionary theater to be performed both at Bryn Mawr and in Prague, asking if theater can provoke revolution, or if is it, as Boal says, merely rehearsal for revolution. Taught by Catharine Slusar.
How did the colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America go, in the space of just a few years, from understanding themselves as proudly British, to going to war to make real a “declaration” of Independence? There are many answers to this question, but in this class, taught by Bethany Schneider, we focus on Philadelphia and on literature, specifically theater, sermons, poetry, pamphlets and newspaper screeds that helped, word by word, change Philadelphians’ understanding of what liberty is and should be. Theorizing both speech acts and print culture, we look at materials leading up to and away from the Revolution, asking how it is imagined into being and then imagined into a safe and consumable history. We take several field trips into the city to Revolutionary sites and sites of powerful fiction-making, where the Revolution continues to be dished up as national fantasy. In addition to mainstream Revolutionary discourse, this course explores anti-racist and feminist radicalisms that found voice and strength in the revolutionary moment, looking at how some Philadelphians, particularly members of Black religious communities and white upper-class women, tried, in very different ways, to wrest Revolutionary potential away from the drive toward a new order that merely redefined and re-empowered fraternal patriarchy.
This course, taught by Anita Kurimay, examines the transformative role of revolution in shaping modern Europe from the late 18th century to the present, centering the experiences and contributions of women and marginalized communities. Through case studies such as the French Revolution, the revolutions of 1848, the Russian Revolution, anti-colonial uprisings, revolutions behind the Iron Curtain, and the protests of 1968, we explore how demands for equality, rights, and justice were driven by diverse voices often left out of traditional narratives. The course highlights the intersections of class, gender, race, and ethnicity within revolutionary movements, focusing on how women, enslaved peoples, workers, students, ethnic minorities and migrants shaped European history and political ideologies like liberalism, socialism, and nationalism. Students analyze primary sources, historical interpretations, and cultural artifacts to uncover the stories of those who fought for inclusion and equity against entrenched systems of power. By the end of the course, students gain a nuanced understanding of how revolutionary change was forged not just in halls of power but in streets, factories, and colonies, laying the groundwork for contemporary struggles for justice and equality.