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Literature and Law Seminar
Class Term:
Spring Term 2017-2018
Catalog Number:
5843
Class Number:
25797
Class Schedule:
Monday
3:30 pm
5:20 pm
Room:
Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy Room
Professor
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.