ENGL 124Legal Fictions: Law, Justice, Literature

3 credits · English · Penn State

This course explores intersections between literature and law, with attention to issues of social justice. How are social concepts and procedures of law and justice represented in different texts and media over time, both fictional and nonfictional? How have texts worked to define and justify the law and its application at different historical moments in the United States? Course content includes select literary works with legal content and themes, and the ways in which those texts represent different forms of justice, crime, and punishment. Students may also analyze legal writing (judicial decisions, jurisprudence, statutes); examples of the 'true crime' genre (visual and textual); memoir; and/or essay writing.