THE HUMAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In The Tempest, Caliban is called a mooncalf, a freckled monster, a mixture of fish and man,
not honourd with a human shape. Beginning with Shakespeares eloquent monstrosity, this
course will track the literary imagination of subjects that somehow fall outside legal, cultural, or
biological classifications of the human. Moving across a variety of genres, we will follow the
paths of anthropomorphic insects, ghoulish children, terrorists, slaves, clones, zombies, and
political dissidents to ask: How do these literary constructions put pressure on the legal
demarcation between human and inhuman? What practices, reading strategies, and assumptions
does such categorization allow? Central to this inquiry will be the historical arc of what we now
call human rights in legal theory and practice.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
This class will focus on analyzing and writing about literary texts. We will think about the formal
choices an author makes: Why write a character as flat or round? Why break the poetic line at
any given point? Why use a really long sentence or a really short sentence? Why rhyme or not
rhyme? What do these choices do? In class we will ask ourselves this question while moving
through literary, cinematic, and historical texts. We will disagree, agree, persuade, and generally
wander in and around these materials to better understand how they are put together. These
conversations will provide a model for what literary arguments can look like. A portion of the
class will be spent working on the writing skills you need to convey such arguments clearly and
effectively in a full-length paper. This section of the course will be geared toward honing your
skills to create an original, argumentative thesis, organize a paper, incorporate secondary sources,
and avoid common grammatical mistakes.

REQUIRED TEXTS
William Shakespeare, The Tempest Oxford Shakespeare ISBN 8129173
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis Norton (Trans. Bernofsky) ISBN 0393347095
Toni Morrison, Beloved Vintage ISBN 1400033411
Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus Penguin ISBN 9780141014081
Doris Lessing, The Fifth Child Vintage ISBN 0679721827
Kazuo Ishiguru, Never Let Me Go Vintage ISBN 1400078776
Aim Csaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
(Trans. Clayton Eshelman) Wesleyan ISBN 0819564524
Graff and Birkensteins They Say/I Say

Films: Battle of Algiers (1966, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo); District 9 (2009, dir. Neill Blomkamp)
INSTRUCTOR: JILL RICHARDS
OFFICE: LC 423
OFFICE HOURS: MW 3-4:30
EMAIL: JILL.RICHARDS@YALE.EDU
COURSE: 115
SECTION: 03
CLASS TIME AND DAY: MW 9-10:15
LOCATION:
GRADES
Essay 1 10%
Essay 2 15%
Essay 3 20%
Essay 4 40%
Participation 15%

Essay 1: Close Analysis (3-4 pages)
The foundational skill of literary analysisand most other academic writingis the ability to
derive larger meanings from the smallest parts of a text. The goal of this assignment is to have
students engage a literary work at the level of its language, locating a meaningful problem,
articulating a claim that takes a stance on that problem, and analyzing relevant textual details in
order to defend that stance. Students will write on Butler, Ovid, Mousa, or Ezzat.

Essay 2: Relating a Section to the Whole (5-6 pages)
During the second unit, students will further their close analysis skills by composing an essay in
which they defend a claim about how a nuanced examination of a single scene allows us to
understand some larger element of a narrative as a whole. The goal of this assignment is for
students to explore how understanding the whole of a literary work is often best achieved by
closely analyzing textual details. This assignment will be based on The Tempest.

Essay 3: Analysis using a Critical, Theoretical, or Historical Lens (5-6 pages)
The third essay serves as a transition between the first two unitswhich analyze a single work
with no outside sourcesand the final research essay. In this essay students bring a critical,
theoretical, or historical text to bear on a work of literature in order to produce new knowledge
at the intersection of two interrelated texts. Students explore how the analytical framework of a
single outside source to uncover new meaning(s) in a work of literature that could not have been
discovered through close reading alone. More sophisticated essays will also locate evidence in
the literary work that contradicts or complicates the account of the lens text and use such
evidence to reflect critically on (or even revise) the account of the outside source. By giving
students practice reading literary works in light of outside sources, this essay begins to develop
skills used in the research essay.

Essay 4: Researched Argument (7-9 pages)
The skills required by the research essay complete students introduction to literary analysis.
Researched arguments can take several forms. Students can write essays in which they place their
readings of a literary work in conversation with the accounts of a few other scholars. Or you
might choose to assign a text in context style essay in which students develop an account that
relates a literary work to the culture that produced it (e.g. reading Hound of the Baskervilles in the
context of late Victorian science) or to larger philosophies about one of its themes (e.g.
examining Moby Dick in light of chaos theory). Text in context style essays can be a good way to
allow each student to further explore an aspect of your course theme in which they feel
especially invested.



PARTICIPATION:

Attendance: While just being in the room and not participating will not earn you full credit for
the class, an absence will definitely mean no credit! I will take role at every class meetingif you
are late, please see me after class that day to make sure I marked you present. You are allowed
two absences during the semester (excused or not); each absence after that will lower your
participation grade by 1/3 of a grade. Habitual lateness will affect your attendance grade.

Discussion: You MUST talk in class. Otherwise it will be very boring for all of us. This does
not mean you have to come into class with a fully formed argument. However, it is generally
good to walk in the door with a few thoughts about the texts already at hand. You can ask
questions. You can point out a passage you really like or dislike. You can argue or agree with
your classmates comments. You can say, I dont get it, this doesnt make sense, I dont see
the point. It really helps me to hear your reactions, so that I can lead the class in a direction
that is helpful for everyone. A substantial part of you participation grade will rest on your vocal
participation in class.

READING RESPONSES:
Throughout the semester, youll be writing short (300 word) response papers. I will give you
handouts in advance asking you to think about a particular textual detail, effect, argument, etc.
These responses are also intended to help us structure our classroom discussion, as I expect you
to be prepared to talk in class about what you wrote in your response. Responses should be
posted on the class website the night before class. Late responses will not be accepted.
Responses are included in your participation grade.

CLASS PRESENTATIONS
After the shopping period each student will sign up to give a 10-15 minute classroom
presentation on the days reading. I will give out a more detailed handout explaining the
requirements for presentations, which are meant to be somewhat informal. Think of this as your
opportunity to broach some questions or opinions about the days materials. Presentations will
be included in the presentation grade.

LATE WORK
All work is due at the beginning of class on the date assigned and must be handed-in in class.
Late papers will be graded down 1/3 of a grade per class day late (e.g., a B will become a B-; a C-
will become a D+; etc.). Extensions must be requested as far in advance as possible.

OFFICE HOURS
I strongly encourage you to use my office hours frequently, to confer with me about any aspect
of the course: clarification of my expectations or your grades, comments on papers, general or
specific questions about the course material, papers in progress, ideas, etc. If you cannot make
my scheduled office hours, please let me know so we can schedule alternative times to meet as
far in advance as possible.



EMAIL
I only check my email once a day, so expect a 24-hour lag. Please do not email drafts or
extensive questions about your papers. I dont do substantial class work over email. It is much
more effective for you to talk to me about your papers, grades, concerns, or questions in office
hours.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the practice of passing off someone else's work as your own, whether this is in the
form of unacknowledged quotations or ideas. It also occurs when someone else writes any part
of your paper. All work you do for this class must be your own. Please understand that you
cannot use the same paper for two different courses at the university and that you must correctly
cite and document your sources, whether they are library books, class textbooks,
scientific/technical or other articles, Internet sites, lectures, personal interviews, etc. You will
receive a handout detailing university policy on plagiarism. It is your responsibility to understand
what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. If you have any questions about plagiarism or about the
use and documentation of sources, please talk with me. I will not accept any papers that do not
clearly and accurately show their sources.





























Date Reading Due Writing Due
8/27

[In class screening] filmpoem
Born to Die Zaher Mousa, dir. Alastair Cook
http://movingpoems.com/2013/03/born-to-
die-by-zaher-mousa/

8/29 Prayer of Fear Mahmoud Ezzat ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIXAFk
XHHRs
Octavia Butler, Speech Sounds


9/1 Labor Day NO CLASS
9/3 Ovid, Medeas Incantation from
Metamorphosis pp. 239-241
Montaigne, Of the Cannibals pp. 227-238


9/8 Shakespeare, The Tempest pp. 97-128


9/10 Shakespeare, The Tempest pp. 128-169
Introduction, pp. 30-39
Reading Response

9/ 15 Shakespeare, The Tempest pp. 170- end


9/ 17 Locke, Of the State of Nature (1690)
Rousseau, The Social Contract Book 1 (1762)
What We Talk About When We Talk About
Persons: The Language of a Legal Fiction

Essay 1 Due 9/18
9/22 Morrison, Beloved pp. 3 75
Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen (1789)

9/24 Morrison, Beloved pp. 76 156
Fugitive Slave Act (1950)
Reading Response

9/29 Morrison, Beloved pp. 157 - 235
Saidiya Hartman, Seduction and the Ruse of
Power

10/1 Morrison, Beloved pp. 236 end Reading Response

10/6 Kafka, The Metamorphosis, pp. 19-51
Stanley Corngold, Metamorphosis of the
Metaphor

10/8 Kafka, The Metamorphosis, pp. 52-end


Essay 2 Due 10/9
10/13 Spiegelman, Maus pp. 1-71 Nuremberg Laws:
Holocaust Memorial
website assignment
10/15 Spiegelman, Maus pp. 72 161
Hungerford, Surviving Rego Park


10/20 Spiegelman, Maus pp. 164 - end
UDHR (1948)

10/22 October Recess NO CLASS

10/27 Csaire, Notebook pp. vii - 21
Fanon On Violence from The Wretched of the
Earth (1961)
Reading Response
10/29 Csaire, Notebook pp. 22 - end
Colonialism and Human Rights


11/3 Lessing, The Fifth Child pp. 1-65

Reading Response
11/5 Lessing, The Fifth Child pp. 66-133
Wendy Brown, Suffering the Paradoxes of
Rights

Essay 3 Due 11/6

11/10 Film Screened Out of Class - Battle of Algiers
Torture Memos (8/1/02 Interrogation
Opinion) pp. 59-71

11/12 Never Let Me Go pp. 3-89 Reading Response

11/17 Never Let Me Go pp. 90 - 183
Adult Time, Adult Crime: Defining the
Teenager in the American Legal System

11/19 Never Let Me Go pp. 184 - end
Human Cloning and Human Rights
Reading Response-
Practice Thesis

11/24 November Recess NO CLASS
11/26 November Recess NO CLASS

12/1 Film Screened Out of Class District 9
Foucault, Right of Death and Power Over
Life from History of Sexuality vol. 1
Required OH for final
paper
12/3 Presentation of research /Workshop Rough Draft Due 12/3

12/8 Reading Period-NO CLASS
12/10 Reading Period-NO CLASS
12/15 Essay 4 Due 12/15