ENGLISH 5WA: Law and Literature

Course Description

In this course, we explore the deep and multifaceted entanglement between law and literature. Anchored in the interdisciplinary field of law and literature, the class revolves around three methodological approaches: law in literature, literature in law, and law as literature. Beginning with Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, we will move across space and time in our cases studies, encountering texts as diverse as Ismat Chughtai's "Lihaaf" and Toni Morrison's "Desdemona." In each unit, we will read literary works alongside legal texts to explore the porous boundary between the two, considering how these disciplines collude, clash, and, together, generate new understandings of our world. By the end of the quarter, when we chart the narrative arc of four Supreme Court cases involving abortion, we will learn to read the law itself as a kind of literature - subjective, iterative, creative. No prior background in law or critical theory is required or assumed. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)