This course will query the extent to which contemporary U.S. literatures “theorize” a historical moment where both political and individual sovereignty are undergoing considerable transformations in light of the ongoing expansion of transnational capital and the attendant reorganization of the U.S. nation-state. After opening with an introduction to the social contract theory of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau and engaging with critical responses to this archive from theorists such as Arendt, Schmitt and Foucault, we will focus on how a handful of novels written in the past thirty or so years represent the relation between and non-coherence of sovereignty as “absolute rule” and as “freedom and autonomy.” Expect to read Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Fae Myenne Ng’s Steer Toward Rock, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Samuel R. Delany’s Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand, the critical material marked above and several additional short critical pieces. Grades will be based on participation, weekly written responses, and a final 10-12-page paper.