685 fall 2012 || Sands || 2

English 685: Law and Literature

Dr. Peter Sands || fall 2012

685 fall 2012 || Sands || 2

Class: MW 2-315

Office: Curtin 417

Office hours: by appt.

http://www.uwm.edu/~sands

229.5912

685 fall 2012 || Sands || 2

Introduction

What is justice? What is morality? What is law? What is truth?

We spend our lives within a legal system, a framework of rules, regulations, and norms that shapes interactions between and among people and nations. We also organize our lives through narrative—fictive or real—using stories to shape both our actual experiences and our understanding of them. Both the legal system and literary expression are primarily experienced through language. In the case of law, language frames legal expression, but is also the primary tool through which law’s authority is enforced. Literary texts are also framed through language, and can even challenge the legal system by exploring boundaries of convention—banned books are both literary and legal artifacts. This course surveys the broad field of law and literature, then closely explores problems in jurisprudence and moral philosophy through literature and film.

Texts (additional required readings are online)

Required

Aeschylus. The Oresteia. NY: Penguin, 1977.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. NY: Harper, 2010.

Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Stories. NY: Penguin, 1986.

Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. NY: Penguin, 1998.

Wacks, Raymond. Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction. NY: Oxford, 2006.

Additional novels may be discussed and selected in class.

Recommended

Binder, Guyora, and Robert Weisberg. Literary Criticisms of Law. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000.

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Pioneers. NY: Penguin, 1988.

Feinman, Jay M. Law 101: Everything You Need to Know about American Law. 3E. Oxford UP, 2010.

Ledwon, Lenora. Law and Literature: Text and Theory. NY: Routledge, 1995.

Course Goals

·  Learn and apply legal terminology and concepts

·  Explore treatment of important legal concepts in literature and film

·  Analyze, understand, and write about culture through the lens of the law

Course Procedures and Requirements

I highly value collaboration, sharing, and creative interplay, using mostly student-led discussion and question-and-answer. It is incumbent upon each of you to read critically and to make significant contributions to discussions. You are expected to puzzle over, worry at, think upon, write about, and otherwise actively engage the material rather than simply imbibe it. Specifically, you must:

·  Complete all reading and writing assignments by their due dates.

·  Participate vigorously and with respect for the ideas of others, the newness of the material to everyone in the class, and the need for patience, patience, patience.

685 fall 2012 || Sands || 2

Course Procedures

Each day and week will look like this:

Read/Write Alone àà Discuss Together àà Reflect on Learning

I highly value collaboration, sharing, and creative interplay. In the absence of lectures, we will have self-guided readings, followed by student-led discussion and question-and-answer. This means that it is incumbent upon each of you to engage the readings critically and to make significant contributions to discussions. You are expected to puzzle over, worry at, think upon, write about, and otherwise actively engage the material rather than simply imbibe it. Specifically, you must:

·  Complete all reading and writing assignments by their due dates.

·  Complete online tasks on time.

·  Participate vigorously and with respect for the ideas of others, the newness of the material to everyone in the class, and the need for patience, patience, patience.

Seminar Discussion

1.  Each student will assist in leading discussion, beginning in the second week.

a.  At least one week in advance, provide me with one or two relevant journal articles or book chapters for distribution to the group.

b.  At least two days in advance (by Tuesday) provide by email a 2-3 page response to the day’s reading to form the basis of the discussion. Other participants should read these responses in preparation for discussion.

c.  Optional-but-encouraged: a short bibliography of additional references be useful in writing seminar papers.

2.  Each student who is not on call that week will submit a 1-2 page response to the reading by the day before class. Light on summary, please. Focus on a key detail, scene, concept, or passage and analyze or provide a provocation for us to discuss.

Writing Assignments

1.  Short paper—5-10 pages summarizing and outlining any topic in legal theory or jurisprudence. Includes an annotated bibliography of both legal and literary texts. No maximum length for bibliography; minimum of 20 entries. Due TBA.

2.  Final paper. Due 14 Dec.. Research paper of 15-20 pages, exclusive of documentation. This should present a single argument, with fully developed analyses of literary and legal texts, in a style appropriate for publication in a journal such as Law and Literature, Law and the Humanities, or Law, Culture and the Humanities. See me early in the term to discuss paper topics.

Grades

Your grade will be calculated by averaging together two separate grades:

1.  Informal writing: includes Commentary/Response and Reflections.

2.  Formal writing: your major essay.

Informal-Writing Contract:

A grading contract is an advantage to students: because you don’t stand or fall on a single assessment, your grade more accurately reflects the quality of your work over time, rather than how you do on a particular day or at a particular task. What’s more, this contract emphasizes the quality of your understanding and interaction with the texts and each other over less-relevant measures.

Informal writing will be assessed as Acceptable or Unacceptable. You will be notified if your work is Unacceptable; otherwise assume that completion = Acceptable.

Acceptable

/

Unacceptable

On-task / Sloppy, careless, rushed, mechanical errors
Actively engaged/cites reading/reflective / Factually/logically inaccurate
Around 250 words / Too short/non-substantive
On time / Late

90-100 % Acceptables = A; 80-89 % = B; 70-79 % = C; 60-69 % = D; 0 - 59 % = F

Essays:

Papers will be graded on an A-F scale, focusing on quality of writing and research, demonstrated understanding of source material, critical practice, and terminology, not time and effort expended. A late paper will be reduced in grade, and may result in a failing grade for the assignment.

We will spend considerable time in class talking about both papers, and I am willing also to reserve time for reading and discussing drafts before the final in-class presentations of your research.

University Academic Policies

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf.