CMPL 272 - Literature and Human Rights

FC ARHU CD WINT

4 credits
This course examines the vital intersections between literature and human rights, from WWII to the present. We will trace literary and cultural engagements with issues of citizenship, the law, and human rights in various contexts of war, decolonization, violence, and oppression. Grounded in Holocaust studies and postcolonial studies, we will examine how the aftermaths of genocide or meditations on the Atlantic slave trade, for example, offer situated engagements with the capacity and limits of national histories and subjectivities. Readings will span genres of fiction, poetry, memoir, critical theory, political philosophy, and history.
This course is cross-listed with JWST 272