Literature and Law (382-0-20)

Instructors

Regina M Schwartz

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-325: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This course will examine ideas of justice in western cultural and literary traditions. The focus will be the classical tradition, the biblical tradition, and Shakespeare who inherited both and reworked them in the early modern period. The trial of Socrates, the trial of Jesus, biblical prophecy, tragedy in Shakespeare, and a modern work by Melville will be included. Our exploration will be done in the context of theories of justice, and we will read those theories alongside the literature. But we will also heed how literature itself offers elaborations of theories of justice, following their consequences both within legal frameworks and beyond, as they shape the public and intimate lives of people. We will ask how religious ideas of justice inform and depart from secular ideas of justice, how retributive and distributive ideas of justice are imagined and critiqued, and how the relation between justice and law has been conceived.

Class Materials (Required)

Bible excerpts (can use online)
The Last Days of Socrates(Penguin)
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare (Arden Edition)
Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw (Penguin Edition)
Billy Budd (TOR)
The Case for Reparationsby Ta-Nehisi Coates (I will send you the online link)
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do by Michael Sandel (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area