Kursinformation

This year marks the anniversary of Michael Young's The Rise of the Meritocracy - 1870-2033. London: Penguin, 1958, a visionary text that predicts a post-Democratic world at the hands of a meritocratic society. We will read Young's dystopian vision alongside two novels, Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895) and Lanchester's Capital (2013). While attending to the style of Hardy's and Lanchester's writing, the focus will be on how the two novels critically engage with the idea of merit, class, and equality.