LAW 5843: Literature and Law Seminar - 2164

Literature and Law Seminar
Class Term:
Spring Term 2015-2016
Catalog Number:
5843
Class Number:
29264
Class Schedule:
Tuesday
3:30 pm -
5:20 pm
Room:
LAW G46
Professor(s):

Professor

Type:
Seminar
Credits:
3 (2 Contact, 0 Field)
Graduation Requirements:
Upper-Level Writing
"W" Writing
Priority:
Seminar - 3rd Year Priority
Full Year Course:
No
Category:
Standard Courses

Additional Information

Probable readings: Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident; Ernest Hemingway, “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife;” Herman Melville, Billy Budd; William Maxwell, So Long, See You Tomorrow; Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace; Albert Camus, The Stranger; Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; and Bernard Schlink, The Reader.

Grading Details

Students must submit two drafts of a paper (20 pages) which may be used to meet the upper level writing requirement. The final grade will be based: 50% on the long paper; 50% on class participation.

Description

Law both affects and reflects cultural values and norms. In this seminar we will investigate the degree to which the law represents and interprets fundamental societal values and norms as expressed in selected literary works. We shall read an eclectic sample of 19th and 20th Century novels in a search for the expression of fundamental cultural values, norms, and prohibitions to determine how they find expression or rejection in the law. Particular attention will be paid to whether the principles of property, contract, tort and criminal law promote or contradict the values found in the literary sources. By so doing, we should gain a richer understanding of how law embodies fundamental human needs and desires.

Literature and Law Seminar