Law and Literature: Liberalism and Beyond

Catalog description

After its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, many wondered whether the law and literature movement would retain vitality. Within the last few decades there has, however, been an explosion of energy in the field, which has expanded beyond the boundaries of the literary text narrowly conceived and incorporated a range of other genres and humanistic approaches. While the U.S. origins of the movement had tied it more closely to a liberal tradition and the role of the judge, recent engagements with law and literature have looked to work from the Global South, questioned the centrality of cases and judicial decisions, and asked what law and literature might look like outside of liberalism. This course will begin with the classic account of law and literature as framed by twentieth-century jurist Benjamin Cardozo and scholars Robert Cover and Martha Nussbaum, then examine alternatives. Primary texts to be considered include, among others, Bertolt Brecht's The Exception and the Rule, Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claudia Rankine's Citizen, The Murder Case of Xu Qiuying, and the Constitution of the White Earth Nation. Nearly every session will pair recent scholarship in the field with a literary or artistic work. This class is limited to 22 students, with an effort made to have students from SLS (16 students will be selected by lottery) and six non-law students by consent of instructor. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Cross-listed with English (ENGLISH 350) and LAW (3517).