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Literature and Law

ENGL 0060.001
instructor(s):
TR 1:45-3:14pm

Many of the central issues in law––evidence, confession, punishment, justice, criminality––are also central preoccupations in literature. In this course we will read literary and legal texts that illuminate key concepts and dilemmas in the law. Topics will include the tension between strict liability and fair adjudication, the problem of bias within legal processes, and the place of rhetoric and storytelling in law. We will explore issues from legal history (racial segregation, sex and marriage) as well as select issues in contemporary law (mass incarceration, torture, privacy). Authors may include William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Susan Glaspell, Ann Petry, Charles Chesnutt, Franz Kafka, Mohamedou Slahi and Ariel Dorfman. Students will be required to write two short papers and two essay exams.

 

fulfills requirements
Sector 1: Theory and Poetics of the Standard Major
Sector 5: 19th Century Literature of the Standard Major
Sector 6: 20th Century Literature of the Standard Major
Sector IV: Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences of the College's General Education Curriculum