Fifth Exercise: Surviving (or Overcoming) Subjugation
History 104 / for Friday, April 26, 2013

Please note: This exercise is designed exclusively for those students who have not yet completed four exercises for our course. It cannot be used to replace an earlier grade on the exercise assignments; we simply don't have the grading resources for this.

For this assignment, please read the lengthy excerpts from Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz; Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless; Mahatma Gandhi, Essential Writings; and Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. (pp. 534-40, 565-69, and 580-88 in the Brophy reader).

Review first the General Guidelines that apply to all our written exercises; then write at least 700 words addressing the following topic. As I've urged you before, be careful not to take quotes out of context; take the time to understand the overall points these authors are trying to make in their written work.

The question(s)

What suggestions do each of these four authors provide -- based on their own experiences -- for responding to situations of complete subjugation? What form of liberation does each author imagine to be possible, based on the strategy proposed? Which of the strategies, in your judgment, appears to have the best chance of achieving its goals? (Note: as always, I am not asking for your _opinion_. I'm asking you to make a reasoned judgment based on a close reading of the sources, and to explain your choice clearly.)