Writing Politics

Writing Politics is a methods book designed to instruct on politically focused literary inquiry through a series of violence-themed inquiries that emphasize forms of writing as the vehicles for politically attuned historiography.

Michael J. Shapiro is Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of political theory and philosophy, critical social theory, global politics, politics of media, politics of aesthetics, politics of culture, and indigenous politics. Among his recent publications are The Cinematic Political: Film Composition as Political Theory (2020); Punctuations: How the Arts Think the Political (2020); The Political Sublime (2018); Politics and Time: Documenting the Event (2017); and Deforming American Political Thought: Challenging the Jeffersonian Legacy, 2nd edition (2016). In 2021, he received the 2018-2020 Pamela Grande Jensen Award for the Best Book in Politics, Literature, and Film.

Introduction: Epistemology and Style 1. A War of Words: Edna O'Brien's Little Red Chairs 2. Scripting Mentality 3. Scripting 'America' 4. Czech Connections 5. Inventing Assassins, Re-textualizing Conspiracies Epilogue