Semester 1

Conspiracy: theories and practices – Helena C. Buescu

Tuesday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., room 8.2

Conspiracy and founding texts: Bible (Samuel 2, 13-19); Sophocles, Ajax; Salustius, The Conspiracy of Catilina. Politics in ancient thought. Social-political values of conspiracy in modern thought: Macchiavelli, The Prince. Social and community values and the representation of an emblematic identity: the prince and the hero. Napoleon, reader of Macchiavelli.  “Res politica” and “res amatoria” (Garrett): conspiracy, politics, secret and romantic love. Stendhal, La Chartreuse de Parme and Almeida Garrett, Frei Luís de Sousa: being born out of time as an ontological conspiracy; Alfred de Musset, Lorenzaccio: conspiracy, politics, eroticism, and death; Luchino Visconti, Senso: the triangle as read from René Girard’s perspective, Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque. Thomas de Quincey, “On Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts” and Oscar Wilde, “The Decay of Lying”: art as a supreme form of aesthetic conspiracy.