Kerry, I am not so sure that your explanation works (i.e., don't teach
what goes against system, empire, etc.). They do teach Brave New World
and Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, for example. And they teach
Steinbeck, who isn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Cannery Row? The Grapes
of Wrath? And Shakespeare has losers, too, and a healthy dose of
skepticism in the way he (at least sometimes) treats the powerful. And
they teach Franz Kafka, the ultimate downer, but a downer in very
specific ways that portray what happens to man facing the system. In a
way, a nonheroic loser who was already condemned to lose is far more
chilling, far more shocking than a guy who falls down in battle.
Students aren't stupid, they get it...
Best,
mrt
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