Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines a diversity of world literature concerning human rights. May focus on writing in the face of political oppression, censorship, political and economic displacement, terrorism and/or warfare. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

“Human Rights” is a discourse, a realm of language use that is part of a network of assumptions, convictions and beliefs. Like other discourses – for example, those of business (“The bottom line is . . .”), medicine (“The symptoms reveal . . .”), sports (“The score tells all . . .”), religion (“Faith bears fruit . . .”) – the discourses of human rights makes sense only if one is familiar with its network of assumptions, convictions and beliefs: its ideology. Does this mean that human rights is a mere ideology? The first third of this course will trace the discourse of human rights as it emerges from literary texts around crucial concepts such as “human dignity,” “humanism” and “justice.” We’ll read numerous short texts from several world traditions, each one invoking the intrinsic value of human life. The idea here is that if the modern discourse of human rights makes sense to people around the world, it’s because it speaks to the preexisting ethical foundations of perhaps all human societies. The second third of the course will zero in on the modern development of the discourse of human rights since the 18th century as described by Lynn Hunt, Samuel Moyn and Joseph Slaughter. Here, too, literature is at the center of things. The final third of the course will explore how modern literature invokes human dignity in order to, in the words of Vaclav Havel, “speak truth to power.” Yet, at the same time, we shall also be attentive to the ways in which this discourse can also be used as a “delivery system” for coercive power. In sum, this course will give students the opportunity to think about the nexus between literature, moral convictions and power.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Students successfully completing this course can expect to:
-               Articulate connections between the cultural realm (novels, poetry and film) and ethical commitment to human rights
-               Understand the historical contexts that led to the modern rise of the discourse of human rights
-               Write cogently on the relationship between literature and human rights
-               Acquire experience speaking publicly on the intersections between cultural and ethical fields            

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: