Law and Literature

Catalog description

This course explores the deep and historical interrelationship between law and literature. Questions to be addressed include: How do legal and literary texts tell stories about ethical problems that shape our sense of justice and injustice? What different (or similar) rhetorical and interpretative rules do lawyers and literary critics employ to construe evidence and arrive at “truth”? Using techniques of close reading - attending to tone, imagery, and subtleties of language - students will be invited to think about how law and literature share common ground in addressing some of the urgent questions of the past and present. Students will also develop the verbal and written skills to articulate valid arguments on literature, law, and the relationship between them. Covers the Interdisciplinary topic for the English major.