Studies in the relationship of literature in English to philosophy.

From streaming docu-series to podcasts to journalistic exposés, cults are everywhere. Popular thirst for stories of charismatic leaders, secret rituals, and salacious scandals seems unquenchable. What is it about communities and groups that promise total belief and total enthrallment that so captures the imagination? Fulfilling the Philosophy and Values Breadth requirement, this class invite students who are ready to be themselves fascinated, enthralled, and perhaps entranced. One of the tasks before us will be to learn how to think critically in the face of that fascination. We will delve deep into some of the most infamous groups in American culture to have earned the ignominious title "cult": Hare Krishnas, People’s Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, and Rajneesh Movement. They've been the subject of public terror, of ridicule, of infamy. Their very names alone stand in for a whole narrative of the dangerous excesses that result from straying from social norms. Disentangling the prevailing stories we have about these groups and generally about those which we call cults requires that we understand how they come to be. How do alluring spiritual and social possibilities mutate into the terrifying, monstrous thing we have grown to uncomfortably love? Turning to a range of philosophical, theological, sociological, and psychological theories, we will try and understand our shared condition of cult fascination. Fascination is a state of rapt unbelief—the gripping curiosity and fervent disavowal of what we do not ourselves inhabit or experience and yet cannot shake. We aren’t simply frightened of or repulsed by cults. Cults reveal what we truly hunger for—spiritually, socially, politically, and culturally. Not just for those who join but for all of us who believe we never would. In this class we will try and understand why we can neither lean in nor look away.

This class satisfies the Literatures in English Major Requirement

https://english.berkeley.edu/major-requirements

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills