Module LAW3397: Law and Literature

Department: Law

LAW3397: Law and Literature

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To develop an understanding of law and literature, starting with a critical understanding of the law and literature approach, and building to sophisticated critical engagement with literary texts. Students will develop a broader perspective on the law, as well as a deeper understanding of law in general.

Content

• The first seminar of the course covers the techniques of law and literature. We will consider law in literature and law as literature, but also go beyond this traditional dichotomy to appreciate the value of an engagement between law and literature in general. Key works include:
• Richard Weisberg, Poethics: And Other Strategies of Law and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992);
• Keiran Dolan, A Critical Introduction to Law and Literature (Cambridge University Press 2007);
• Ian Ward, Legal Education and the Democratic Imagination, Law and Humanities 3 (2009): 87-112;
• Robin West, Literature, Culture and Law, At Duke University in Teaching Law and Literature (Catherine Frank & Matthew Anderson eds);
• Melanie Williams, Empty Justice (Cavendish 2002).
• Students on the module will then read 5 texts, both classic and modern, from novels to plays and poems as well as non-fiction literary texts. The texts are chosen with the intention of allowing students to consider fundamental legal questions in a new way.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will have:
• a thorough knowledge of approaches to law and literature;
• a demonstrably in-depth knowledge of the methods of law and literature;
• an appreciation of how law operates in different contexts, some historical, some fantastical, some utopian or dystopian;
• familiarity with the contemporary issues in the study of law and literature.

• Students should be able to:
• interpret and evaluate critically works of literature to understand the law better;
• accurately identify which legal/literary issues require research, to retrieve the primary and secondary sources relevant to those issues, and to evaluate critically and work from those materials to arrive at a clear and defensible opinion on the issues;
• identify the ways in which literature can help develop our understanding of the law;
• the ability to communicate legal arguments, findings, and solutions appropriately to the needs of a variety of audiences.

• Students should be able to:
• analyse critically a wide variety of complex issues, drawing on a variety of materials;
• take responsibility for their own learning and to work independently to meet deadlines;
• select key relevant issues for research and formulate them with clarity;
• recognise potential alternative conclusions for particular situations, and provide supporting reasons for them;
• describe accurately and coherently the arguments and analysis of other commentators;
• write in a clear and structured way and to put forward ideas in a scholarly manner;
• explore creatively complex issues in writing.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• This module is a 10-credit module. The workload can be expected to be half that of a standard 20 credit module. The course begins with one lecture and a seminar introducing the methods of law and literature. There will then be 5 discussion-based seminars. Most seminars will consider a separate work of literature.
• The assessment is one essay consisting of two parts – a book review and a self-reflection on the course. The book review will require you to write a 1000-word review of one of the books we study. The second part of your essay will ask you to consider how the text you reviewed related to the other texts on the course requiring you to engage critically with the legal themes developed over the course.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One book review of 1000 words.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.