International Solidarity in Literature and Film

Module description

In the early 21st century, popular left-wing political movements have gained new energy and visibility as activists have forged new connections across the globe. Forms of transnational activism as diverse as the alter-globalization movement, environmental activism, anti-austerity activism, and refugee advocacy networks all rely on a notion of solidarity between people from different national, cultural, and economic backgrounds, and especially between people from the global north and the global south. But what does it mean to be in solidarity with another person, or with a movement? Are you in solidarity with someone only when you share political beliefs with them, or is it possible to be in solidarity on the basis of shared human feeling and a commitment to universal human rights?

Using E. M. Forster’s plea to ‘only connect’ as a point of reference and departure, this module will examine expressions of transnational solidarity in literature and film circulated in English from the 1970s to the present day. We will focus particularly on the shift in the late and post-Cold War period from third-worldist to humanitarian ideas of solidarity, and on the persistent use of documentary realism and the construction of a sympathetic protagonist as means of both ideological and emotional persuasion. We will consider the reasons for the cultural prominence of some solidarity movements rather than others, and discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of imaginative empathy as a basis for political activism. We will also look at examples of the recent backlash against human rights-based notions of solidarity, and the return of utopian political ideas. Contexts to be studied include Biafra, the Chilean and Nicaraguan solidarity movements, the anti-apartheid movement, the Palestine solidarity movement, and the global uprisings of 2011 and beyond.

Assessment details

Coursework; practical/s

Reader-response forum (15%), 3000-word essay (85%)

Teaching pattern

2 hour seminar weekly

Suggested reading list

Indicative reading and viewing list 2024-25

1. Extracts from David Featherstone, Solidarity (2012) and Samuel Moyn, The Breakthrough (2014)
   
   
2. Leila Khaled, My People Shall Live (1973)
   
   
3. Alex La Guma, In the Fog of the Season’s End (1972)
   
   
4. Patricio Guzmán, The Battle of Chile: Part 2 (1976)
   
   
5. Selected Nicaraguan poetry (1970s/80s)
   
   
6. Ariel Dorfmann, Death and the Maiden (1990)
   
   
7. Susan Meiselas, Pictures from a Revolution (1991)
   
   
8. Phaswane Mpe, Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001)
   
   
9. Selection from Tahrir Tales: Plays from the Egyptian Revolution (2016)
   
   
10. Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, 5 Broken Cameras (2011)

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