The story of Socrates (or parts of that story as it has been differently told and retold) has been deliberately used, starting in antiquity and for centuries, by a striking diversity of authors (philosophers, critics, dramatists), visual artists, composers and political actors working in a range of cultural traditions, genres and media, to convey their own meanings in compact and affecting ways. This class aims to engage students in an examination of one slice of this phenomenon--the presence of Socrates in 20th and 21st century American popular media. How and why has this icon of Greek antiquity on occasion worked as a vital symbol in contemporary American culture? Does familiarity with this material help us look at the ancient sources in fresh ways?

This class will proceed by introducing students to the main ancient sources for the story of Socrates and identifying the variety of ideas this material attaches to this figure (e.g., a distinctive method of inquiry; a peculiar philosophy of love; a 'gadfly' conception of citizenship; victim of injustice; henpecked husband; impractical and/or subversive intellectual; possessor of a peculiar appearance; and practitioner an uncommon kind of courage). We will consider the controversy over whether a distinct "historical Socrates" can be reconstructed from various ancient representations with their conflicting details and views of his character, attending chiefly to the portraits of Socrates in Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato. We will then look at some scholarship on selected high-profile appropriations of Socrates in later periods before we focus our attention on a body of late 20th and early 21st century adaptations of the story of Socrates in American popular culture. These sources are drawn from radio, television, Broadway stage, film, comedy, popular political discourse and art. For example, we will discuss the identification of Socrates with democratic resistance during WWII proposed by John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down, the commentary on McCarthyism and the Cold War embedded in a 1953 TV show and 1954 Broadway play dramatizing Socrates' life and death, Martin Luther King's invocation of Socrates in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, the deployment of Socrates in the comedy of Woody Allen and Steve Martin, and the account of ethical struggles in Water Mosely's recent fiction featuring the character Socrates Fortlow, and more. Counts toward all three specializations.