Human Rights Syllabi: Institute of International
Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Florida State University
Human Rights and the Body in Law and the Humanities
Fall 2002 - Williams 225 - MWF12:20 - 1:10 PM
Description (Inclusive of Human Rights Content and Methodology)
This course aims to use an interdisciplinary approach, inclusive of law, literature,
critical theory and film, in order to examine evolving characterizations of
international human rights and of the legal and political instruments designed
for their protection, both in official legal and political documents, as well
as fictional and documentary interpretations in literature and film. A key theme
running through the course is an examination of how the “international
human body” is configured in various texts: through United Nations reports
on human rights; critical legal analyses; documentary films; fictional novels,
and popular films.
After studying the theoretical and philosophical foundations of the idea of
human rights in various civilizations and cultures, this course attempts to
evaluate the legacy of human rights within both western and non-western traditions,
this course also aims critically to examine the meaning and relevance of human
rights in dealing with major issues in the contemporary world, such as torture,
political repression, war crimes and genocide, refugees, women’s rights,
children’s rights, violations of human rights within the U.S., and in a
more specific case, the plight of immigrant women and children as described
in the 1998 U.S. Violence Against Women Act.
General Course Objectives
- to examine what “human rights” are, in terms of its characterizations
in law, literature and film;
- to examine how the “international human body” is depicted, in
terms of nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, class, and age, among other
factors, in legal/political documents and in popular culture
- to expand upon the theoretical gains of the “law and literature,”
“critical legal studies,” “critical race theory” and “feminist
legal theory” jurisprudential movements, and situate the meaning of “human
rights” within broader interdisciplinary inquiries, inclusive of literature,
film, and popular culture
- to discuss questions of ethics in relation to depictions of “human
rights and the body” in law, literature and film
Required Texts
Tentative: See Timeline Below
Course Format
This course will employ principally a discussion and seminar format, and will
integrate the effective use of technology (e.g., Blackboard, powerpoint, videos,
when relevant). {For samples of technology enhanced and web courses I have developed
and taught, refer to: http://english.fsu.edu/picart --go to the “Teaching”
section; a completed virtual course can be found at: http://english3.fsu.edu/~kpicart/humfilm.
Student Profile
What
kind of student are you? (.ppt file; 92K)
Grading Criteria
- Attendance and Participation: 20%
- Blackboard Posts: 10%
- Powerpoint Presentations: 20%
- Proposal: 5%
- Draft: 20%
- Final Paper: 25%
Attendance and Participation
Ultimately, this proposed course is largely discussion-oriented, and students
play an active role in ensuring the success of the course. Students are required
to come in, having read the assigned texts for the day, in order to present
and defend their interpretations of the texts, as well as critique those of
others and pose clarificatory questions. In-class oral participation and attendance
will also comprise 20% of the total mark. Note that given that we
are meeting only for six weeks because it is proposed as an annual summer course,
cross-listed between law and humanities, only two excused absences are allowed;
having more than two absences is sufficient reason for an “F”.
Blackboard Posts
To take this course, it is imperative that you sign up for a mailer or garnet
ACNS account:
http://register.acns.fsu.edu/CARS/studentreg.html
To access Black Board, go to http://campus.fsu.edu (note: a new browser window
will open) and log into the course section, using your mailer or garnet accounts
and passwords.
Note that skills of reading, listening, and speaking, which all rest upon prior
preparation, form an integral component of the course. Extended discussions
via Blackboard threaded conversations during the periods in between sessions,
will be used to help set up and continue generating class momentum. These threaded
e-mail conversations will comprise 10% of the total mark, and will be monitored
and evaluated by the professor. The threaded conversation exercise integrates
writing with skills of argumentation and discussion. Students are required to
log in once a week, anytime between Friday morning and Saturday midnight
prior to the next class, to carry on these electronically mediated conversations.
Threaded conversations must have a minimum of 300 words and a maximum
of 500 words (double spaced within BB), again seeking to comment substantively
on the powerpoint presentations in relation to theoretical and practical issues.
There will be no cancellations of missed posts. Posts should be
made in the general discussion board, so everyone has access to
the material, and may comment on individual posts. Feedback on how you are doing
(both in your presentations and BB threaded conversations) will be provided
through BB and will be handed back to you in class. THERE IS NO MAKE-UP OR LATE
WORK THAT WILL BE ACCEPTED.
Powerpoint Presentations
After several sessions handled principally by the professor, the duty of giving
a brief summary and critique of some of the assigned texts for the day, and
of generating discussion, will be rotated among the students in pairs or singly,
depending on the size of the class. This is designed to enable students to be
more actively involved in class discussions. Students giving powerpoint presentations
are required to e-mail their presentations to me (kpicart@english.fsu.edu)
24 hours before they are due to report. On the day of the presentations,
the presenters are required to come in with a diskette version (just in case
something goes wrong with the web) and two hard copies of the powerpoints in
“hand-out” format. AGAIN, NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.
The student powerpoints should feature:
1. the aims of the particular class session;
2. key terms/concepts and examples of them, featuring specific clips;
3. an outline of projected activities;
4. an interactive activity, which is usually a student edition powerpoint presentation
that may incorporate a game, small group work, acting a skit, etc.
5. guide questions for discussion.
On the day of the presentation itself, the students should come in with two
powerpoint handout copies (see below for instructions) to submit to the professor.
One will be marked and returned to the students; the other will be kept on file.
The items outlined above comprise the criteria for the evaluation of the students’
work for this component, which comprises 20% of the total mark, with each component
above equally weighted. The presentations should be more specifically geared
at sharing critical insights rather than general commentaries on the material.
Posting these powerpoint presentations is a prerequisite to passing the
course; failure to do so will result in failure. 20% of your total grade will
come from this presentation. There are NO exceptions to this rule; you may switch
teams and dates if you tell me ahead of time, and work out arrangements with
each other.
In order to save on ink and paper, you may print out a “handout”
version. Instructions for this are listed below. If it is easier for you, just
print out an ordinary copy of the powerpoint presentation and photocopy it to
save ink.
Powerpoint Printing of Handout Copies of Powerpoint Presentations
- From the web (You must have the PowerPoint program installed in
your computer to do it this way)
- Use Netscape to get to campus.fsu.edu.
- After you log in and get to the course webpage, click to External Links.
- Click on the PowerPoint presentation you would like to print out.
- A window will open to ask if you would like to "save it to disk"
or "run from the current location". For convenience's sake,
click "run from current location." This will download and transfer
the presentation to the PowerPoint program on your computer.
- Go to "File" on the menu. Scroll down to "Print".
- When the print menu pops up.
- You can choose from "slides". This will print each slide
on a full page.
- To save paper, you can choose to print as "handouts".
On a section on the right, you can choose how many slides you would
like on each page.
- Also, there are checklist options at the bottom, I recommend clicking
"pure black and white" for clearer pictures on a black and
white printer.
- When you are finished, click the "OK" button.
- From the PowerPoint Program.
- Click on the "my computer" icon.
- Click on the icon representing where your file is saved (for example,
if the PowerPoint presentation you wish to open is on your disk, click
A:)
- Click on the file in order to open.
- Go to "File" on the menu. Scroll down to "Print".
- When the print menu pops up.
- You can choose from "slides". This will print
each slide on a full page.
- To save paper, you can choose to print as "handouts".
On a section on the right, you can choose how many slides you would
like on each page.
- Also, there are checklist options, I recommend clicking
"pure black and white" for clearer pictures on a black and
white printer.
- When you are finished, click the "OK" button.
Proposal, Draft, and Final Paper
The final requirement for the course is a 25-30 page paper, which
is to be developed in a stepwise fashion, starting from a 3 page proposal, inclusive
of an annotated bibliography and statement of aims, to a 15-20 page draft, and
25-30 page final paper, with a minimum of 20 sources, 10 of which must be new;
the other 10 should be taken from source material used in class, and should
entail a good blend of books; scholarly, literary and popular texts; Internet
sources; and films. Note that you are required, at the least, to focus on one
legal text, one novel, and one film. These add up to 50% of the final mark.
The breakdown for this component of the grade is: 5% proposal; 20% draft and
25% final paper.
Grading Scale
93-100% A
90-92% A-
87-89% B+
83-86% B
80-82% B-
79-77% C+
76-73% C
70-72% C-
69-67% D+
66-63% D
62-60% D-
59-0% F
Academic Honor Code
The Florida State University General Bulletin contains an Honor
Code that is repeated verbatim in the Student Handbook. You are responsible
for knowing and conforming to it; in addition to the information listed in the
Handbook, you are also cautioned that:
- If you take material that is not yours, from any source (inclusive of websites),
and copy it into anything you submit, you are obligated to provide a footnote,
endnote or parenthetical reference and works cited list at the end of the
paper.
- Material that is lifted verbatim from other texts must be placed in quotation
marks or, in the case of anything longer than three sentences, blocked quotes,
indicating its source, as in item # 1 above.
- Material that is paraphrased must also be documented as in item # 1.
- Persons who violate the Honor Code and any of the items above in any requirement,
whether minor or major, will receive an “F” for the course.
ADA Statement
Students with documented disabilities needing academic accommodations should,
in the first week of class
- register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource
Center (SDRC) and
- bring an authorized letter from SDRC to the professor, indicating the need
for academic accommodations, if necessary. This and all other class materials
are available in alternative format, upon request. I will do everything I
can to ensure fairness to everyone in class
Final Note
By week 2, please hand in the following information on the smallest sized index
card with a recent photo of you (photocopy your I.D. cards, if worse comes to
worst). For students who have taken courses from me in the past, you may skip
the photo, but I will need your latest contact information and your profile
below.
- Name:
- Nickname:
- Year:
- Major:
- Minor:
- Background in English, Humanities, Philosophy, Criticism or Women’s
Studies (if any):
- Home Phone:
- E-Mail:
Schedule and Class Outline
Part I: Human Rights and the Body in Law and Documentary Film
Week 1: Aug 26-30
Human Rights and the international Body Politic
Guide Questions:
- What are the philosophical, political and economic underpinnings of human
rights?
- How did the current normative framework of international human rights evolve?
How was the concept of “human rights” institutionalized in Western
political thought?
- What is the difference between human rights and civil rights?
- What is the implicit depiction of the “human body” in relation
to “human rights” in these texts?
- How does the image of the individual human body relate to the image of
the “body politic” in these texts?
Suggested Texts:
- Henry Steiner and Philip Alston, International Human Rights in Context.
Law, Politics, Morals (Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 3-116.
- Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (Cornell
University Press, 1989), pp. 9-45; Steiner and Alston, pp. 256-328.
(Target Packet)
- F. Newman and D. Weissbrodt, eds. International Human Rights: Law, Policy
and Process, 2nd ed. (Anderson Publishing Co., 1996), Chapters 1 and 2.
(Strozier Library Reserve)
Websites:
- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights web site http://www.unhchr.ch
- The Consortium for Health and Human Rights web site http://www.healthandhumanrights.org
Week 2: September 2-6
Comparative Human Rights Systems: Universalist vs. Cultural Relativist Perspectives
on Human Rights
Guide Questions:
- Are “human rights” purely a western concept, or is it universal?
- What is the concept of “human rights” in non-western traditions?
- Is the concept of the “human body” the same in relation to these
“human rights” in Western and nonwestern contexts?
- What is the relationship between domestic constitutional law and international
human rights law, and how are “human rights” and the “human
body” configured in these?
- What mechanisms exist nationally and internationally for enforcing human
rights? How effective are they, based on particular test cases, such as the
Soering and El Mozote cases?
Suggested Texts:
- Abdullahi an-Naim (ed.), Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives:
A Quest for Consensus (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), pp. 1-102.
(Target Packet)
- Henry Steiner and Philip Alston, International Human Rights in Context.
Law, Politics, Morals (Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 166-255. (Strozier
Library Reserve)
- Michael J. Perry, “Are Human Rights Universal? The Relativist Challenge
and Related Matters,” Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 19, 3 (August
1997).
- M. Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote (Vintage, 1993), pp. 175-278.
- M. Hoyt, ‘The Mozote Massacre’ in The Columbia Journalism Review
(Jan./Feb. 1993), pp. 31-35.
- Soering v. U.K., in R.A. Lawson & H.G. Schermers, Leading Cases of
the European Court of Human Rights (Ars Aequi Libri, 1997), pp. 306-328.
(Target Packet)
Documentary Film:
America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference, Martin Ostrow, PBS,
1994. (Strozier Media Center)
Week 3: September 9-13
Challenges to the Protection of International Human Rights
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
Sept. 9, 11: Dr. Picart
Sept. 11: Clockwork Orange showing
Sept. 13: Chris Wood on Andreopoulos
Guide Questions:
- What are the United Nations standards concerning the internationalization
of human rights, and how is the international human body configured in relation
to these rights?
- What have been some past and contemporary challenges to the promotion and
protection of international human rights, and how has the individual body,
in relation to the national and international bodies politic, been envisaged
in relation to these challenges?
- What is the notion of “health” implied in the depictions of human
rights and the human body?
Suggested Texts:
- Henry Steiner and Philip Alston, International Human Rights in Context.
Law, Politics, Morals (Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 347-455; 563-539. (Strozier
Library Reserve)
- Jonathan Mann, Lawrence Gostin, Sofia Gruskin, et. al., “Health and
Human Rights,” Health and Human Rights, vol. 1, 1 (1994).
- Virginia Leary, “The Right to Health in International Human Rights
Law,” Health and Human Rights, vol. 1, 1 (1994).
- Tom Farer, The Rise of the Inter-American Human Rights Regime: No Longer
a Unicorn, Not Yet an Ox, vol. 19, 3 (1997).
- George Andreopoulos, ed. Genocide: The Conceptual and Historical Dimensions
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), pp. 1-63. (Target Packet)
- Carlos S. Nino, Radical Evil on Trial (Yale University Press, 1996),
pp. 3-104, 107-189. (Strozier Library Reserve)
- Helen Fein, “Genocide by Attrition 1939-1993: The Warsaw Ghetto, Cambodia
and Sudan,” Health and Human Rights, vol. 2, 2 (1997).
Week 4: Sep. 16 - 20
Torture, Extra-Judicial Executions and Political Repression
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
Sept. 16: Michael Rodriguez on Gordon & Marton
Sept 18: Dr. Picart
Sept 18: Death and the Maiden showing
Sept. 20: Submit proposals at Williams 405 by 1:10 p.m.
Proposals for Final Papers are Due
Guide Questions:
- What is the definition of torture under international law, and what are
the implicit depictions of the “healthy”/ “free” human
body?
- What is the difference between just punishment and cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment or punishment?
- What ethical issues arise when physicians, scientists or other medical
personnel become involved in torture?
- Taking a particular test case, what was the degree of state repression
in the Soviet Gulag, based on existing documents? What ethnic and political
criteria were involved in repressive measures? How was psychiatric repression
configured in relation to bodily torture?
Suggested Texts:
- Nigel Rodley, The Treatment of Prisoners Under International Law (Clarendon
Press, 1987), Chapter 12. Ireland v. UK, in F. Newman and D. Weissbrodt, eds.,
2nd ed. (Anderson Publishing Company, 1996), pp. 147-150; 155-165.
- Convention Against Torture, in Twenty-five Human Rights Documents
(Columbia University, 1994), pp. 71-79.
- Askoy v. Turkey, in Leading Cases of the European Court of Human Rights,
eds. R.A, Lawson & H.G. Schermers (Ars Aequi Libri, 1997), pp. 654-670.
- Gordon and Marton, eds., “Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics, and
the Case of Israel” Amnesty International, Prisoners of Conscience
in the USSR: their Treatment and Conditions (1975, 1980), Chapter 2 E.
(Target Packet)
- Stover & E.O. Nightingale, M.D., The Breaking of Bodies and Minds:
Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions (W.H. Freeman,
1985), Chapters 6 and 9. (Strozier Library Reserve)
Documentary Film:
Women Under Attack, Rights & Wrongs, Program 3, Eulogio L. Ortiz,
Jr., Globalvision and WNET Thirteen, 1993.
Week 5: September 23 - 27
International Crimes and Punishment; Asylum and Persecution
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
Sept. 23: Danielle Kotaska on Newman and Weissbrodt, ch. 7
Sept. 25: Danielle Kotaska on Askin
Sept 25: Judgment at Nuremberg showing
Sept 27: Dr. Picart
Guide Questions:
- What is the legacy of the trials at Nuremberg?
- What are the legal characterizations of war crimes; genocide and crimes
against humanity; medical/forensic, legal, psychological and sociological
factors? How is the international human body configured in relation to these?
- When does rape constitute a war crime? How is the raced, classed and aged
female body configured in relation to law?
- How do international law and domestic law intersect and diverge, in their
treatment of the refugee?
- How do domestic violence and female genital mutilation form the basis for
political asylum? How is the raced and classed female body depicted in these
texts?
Suggested Texts:
- F. Newman and D. Weissbrodt, eds., 2nd ed. (Anderson Publishing Company,
1996), Chapters 7 and 14. (Strozier Library Reserve)
- Amnesty International, ‘Disappearances’: A Workbook
(1981), pp. 75-118.
- Amnesty International, ‘Disappearances’ and Political Killings:
Human Rights Crisis of the 1990s. A Manual for Action (1994), pp. 84-107.
- K.D. Askin, War Crimes Against Women (Martinus Nijhoff, 1997), pp.
49-95; 179-185; 298-361. (Strozier Library Reserve)
- C. McKinnon, "Rape, Genocide and Women’s Human Rights," in
Mass Rape: The War Against Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ed. A. Stiglmayer
(University of Nebraska Press, 1994), pp. 183-196.
- Re. Fauziya Kazinga (Board
of Immigration Appeals, June 1996). (Strozier Library Reserve)
- Convention
Against Torture: Tahir Hussain Khan v. Canada (Nov. 1994). (Strozier
Library Reserve)
- Pauline
Kisoki v. Sweden (May 1996). (Strozier Library Reserve)
Week 6: September 30 - October 4
Women’s and Children’s Rights
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
SEP. 30: Michael Rodriguez on Fitzpatrick
OCT. 2: Michael Rodriguez on Meron
OCT. 2: House of Spirits showing
OCT. 4: Fall Break
Guide Questions:
- Should women’s rights be created as a separate category?
- How are women’s rights and bodies configured in relation to the rights
and bodies of their children, and their spouses?
- How are women’s and children’s bodies configured in relation to
property?
- Can women’s rights (and the imaging of their bodies) be separate from
cultural constraints?
- Should formal equality be the goal of women’s lobbying for rights protection?
- What were the outcome and achievements of the Beijing Conference?
- What is the North/South divide in the International Women’s Movement?
Suggested Readings:
- Convention to
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women United Nations
General Assembly Resolution 48/104 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
Against Women
- Charlotte Bunch, “Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Revision
of Human Rights,” 12 Human Rights Quarterly 486, 1982 (Target Packet)
- Hilary
Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin and Shelley Wright, “Feminist Approaches
to International Law,” 85 American Journal of International Law 813,
1991, pp. 613-45. (Target Packet)
- “Women, Law and Property in the Developing World: An Overview,”
Human Rights Quarterly, Johns Hopkins University, 1981. (Strozier Library
Reserve)
- Joan
Fitzpatrick, “The Use of International Human Rights Norms to Combat Violence
Against Women,” from Human Rights of Women, ed. Rebecca J, Cook.
(Strozier Library Reserve)
- Theodore
Meron, “Rape as a Crime Under International Humanitarian Law,” 87
American Journal of International Law 424 (1993). (Strozier Library
Reserve)
- I. Gunning, “Arrogant Perception, World-Travelling and Multicultural
Feminism: The Case of Female Genital Surgeries,” 23 Columbia Human
Rights Journal 189 (1991-92) (Target Packet)
- Karen Engle, “Female Subjects of Public International Law: Human Rights
and the Exotic Other Female,” New England Law Review 26, 1992,
pp. 1509-1526.
Films:
- Death and the Maiden, Roman Polanksi, dir., 1994. (Strozier Media
Center)
- Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer, dir., 1961. (Strozier Media
Center)
Week 7: October 7 - 11
Violations of Human Rights in the US
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
OCT. 7: Chris Wood on Newman & Weissbrodt, Ch. 13
OCT. 9: Chris Wood on The Many Faces of Domestic Violence (esp. on alien/foreign
women)
OCT. 9: Beloved showing
OCT. 11: Dr. Picart
Guide Questions:
- Do violations of human rights occur in the imposition of the death penalty?
- Do prison conditions violate international standards concerning human rights
and the un-tortured human body?
- Does the detention of alien minors, including children of asylum seekers,
constitute a violation of human rights?
- How does the Violence Against Women Act attempt to address the rights of
the alien/foreign woman who has been sexually tortured or imprisoned, and
those of her children? What is the implicit depiction of the alien female
body and those of her children in VAWA?
Suggested Texts:
- F. Newman and D. Weissbrodt, eds., 2nd ed. (Anderson Publishing Company,
1996), Chapter 13. (Strozier Library Reserve)
- American Prosecutor’s Research Institute, The Many Faces of Domestic
Violence; Cultural and Immigration Issues in Domestic Violence, Sponsored
in Cooperation with the Violence Against Women Office and the Battered Women’s
Justice Project, 1999. (Strozier Library Reserve)
- Violence Against Women, Law and Litigation, ed. David Frazee, Ann
Noel, Andrea Brenneke and Mary C. Dunlap (West, 1997, 1998). (Strozier Library
Reserve)
Websites:
- http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/laws/vawa/vawa.htm, especially the section
on “Protections for Battered Immigrant Women and Children”
- http://www.now.org/issues/violence/vawa/vawa1998.html for the 1998 version
Week 8: October 14 - 18
Ethics, Medical Research and Human Rights
Draft is MOVED BACK!!!!!
Guide Questions:
- To what degree should medical experimentation be allowed, without constituting
a violation of international human rights?
- How is the international human body treated as a subject for medical experimentation?
- Do human radiation experiments in the US violate international human rights?
- Do HIV trials in other countries constitute a violation of international
human rights?
Suggested Readings:
- HCR: R. Faden, The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments:
Reflections on a Presidential Commission.
- HCR: J.D. Moreno “The Only Feasible Means”: The Pentagon’s
Ambivalent Relationship with the Nuremberg Code.
- HCR: N.E. Kass, et. Al. Trust: The Fragile Foundation of Contemporary
Biomedical Research.
- HCR: R.A. Burt, The Suppressed Legacy of Nuremberg.
- H. Varmus “Ethical Complexities of Conducting Research in Developing
Countries,” New England Journal of Medicine 337 (1997): 1003-5.
(Target Packet)
- P. Lurie, S. M. Wolfe, “Unethical Trials of Interventions to Reduce
Perinatal Transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Developing Countries,”
New England Journal of Medicine 337 (1997): 853-856.
- M. Angell, “The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World,”
New England Journal of Medicine 337 (1997): 847-849.
Part II: Human Rights and the Body in the Humanities
Weeks 9, 10 and 11 Guide Questions:
Human Rights and the Body in Literature and Fictional Film
For weeks 9, 10 and 11, the following constitute the general guide questions
for novels that are paired with movie correlates for better comparison:
- What human rights are highlighted in these novels and films? Are there significant
convergences and departures in the depictions of human rights and the body
in these novels and films?
- What human rights are in conflict in the depictions of these gendered,
raced, classed, aged and multi-classified human bodies in these novels and
films?
- Who act to defend and/or deny human rights in these novels and films, in
keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? How are these champions
or oppressors raced, classed, gendered, aged and otherwise categorized?
- Is the action to defend human rights effective or successful in the novels
and films? Justify your answers carefully.
- Is the action to defend human rights in the novels or films violent or
nonviolent? Did it bring long range effects for the better or not?
- How are rights and responsibilities implicitly related in the depictions
of raced, gendered, classed, aged bodies in these novels and films?
- How are individual human bodies and rights configured in relation to those
of the body politic in these novels and films?
- Do any of these situations still have contemporary pertinence?
- What literary and cinematic devices are used in order to create a bodily
rhetoric of human rights?
Week 9: October 21 - 25
Race, Gender and Class
Important Class Information:
Dr. Picart will be away on a conference, and the lectures are on video.
WORK ON YOUR PAPERS. Two movies will be shown: Animal Farm (during regular class
time) and Grapes of Wrath (Oct. 23, Wednesday).
Suggested Readings and Their Corresponding Films:
- Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
House of Spirits, Bille August, dir., 1993;
- Toni Morrison’s Beloved (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
Beloved, Jonathan Demme, dir., 1998;
- Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
The Handmaid’s Tale, Volke Schlöndorff, dir., 1990.
Week 10: October 28 - November 1
Class and Dystopias
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
DRAFT IS DUE ON OCTOBER 28
OCT. 28, 30: Danielle Kotaska on House of Spirits & HandmaidÅfs Tale
(novels and movies)
NOV. 1: Dr. Picart
Suggested Readings and their corresponding films:
- Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
Brave New World, Leslie Libman and Larry Williams, dirs. 1998 (TV movie)
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
Animal Farm, Joy Batchelor and John Halas, dirs., 1955. (Strozier
Media Center)
- John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
Grapes of Wrath, John Ford, dir., 1940.
Week 11: November 4 - 8
The Law and Human Rights
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
NOV. 4: Michael Rodriguez on Animal Farm (novel & film)
NOV. 6: Chris Wood on Grapes of Wrath (novel & film)
NOV. 6: 1984 showing
NOV. 8: Dr. Picart
Suggested Readings and their corresponding films:
- Franz Kafka’s The Trial.
The Trial, David Hugh Jones, dir., 1993. (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
- Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick, dir., 1971. (Strozier Media Center)
- George Orwell’s 1984. (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
1984, Michael Radford, dir., 1984.
Week 12: November 11-15
Concluding Remarks-Postmodern Jurisprudences and Human Rights & the Body
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
NOV. 11: Veteran's Day - no classes
NOV. 13: Michael Rodriguez on A Clockwork Orange (novel & film)
NOV. 13: Gandhi showing
NOV. 15: Chris Wood on 1984 (novel & film)
Guide Question:
Do interdisciplinary pursuits in the exploration of human rights and the body
have anything to contribute to contemporary jurisprudence?
Suggested Texts (excerpts from):
- Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume I (Vintage, 1990) (Bill's
Bookstore-Optional)
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Vintage, 195) (Bill's Bookstore-Optional)
- Terry Eagleton, “Deconstruction and Human Rights,” in Freedom
and Interpretation (Basic Books, 1993).
- Gary Minda, Postmodern Legal Movements: Law and Jurisprudence at Century’s
End (New York University Press, 1995), especially sections on “Critical
Legal Studies,” “Feminist Legal Theory,” “Law and Literature,”
“Critical Race Theory,” and “Jurisprudence at Century’s
End” (Strozier Library Reserve)
Film:
Gandhi, Richard Attenborough, dir., 1982. (Strozier Media Center)
Week 13 - 15: November 18 - December 6
Important class dates, topics, and lecturers:
NOV. 18: Dr. Picart: summary remarks
NOV. 20-24: Dr. Picart will be away on a conference, 11/20 - 24. Marathon Man
showing will start in the morning of NOV. 20 and end during the evening showing.
NOV. 25, 27: Dr. Houck (guest lecturer on Foucault)
NOV. 28, 29: Thanksgiving Break - no classes
DEC. 2: Dr. Picart on Minda
DEC. 4, 6: Final Reports (25 minutes eachÅ\10 mins. Presentation; 15 mins.
Q & A)
DEC. 6: SIR/SUSSAI Evaluations and Self-Evaluations; "Party"
To Human Rights Syllabi Table of Contents