Séminaire de littérature

Intitulé: Writing (about) the law/justice in contemporary North American literature 

This course will explore different aspects of the relationship between literature and the justice system in contemporary literature from North America.

-          The first part of the course will do so through a parallel reading of literary fiction and legal texts from the corpus of US Federal Indian law. We examine the foundational court cases establishing the US “trust doctrine” and the legal framework of indigenous oppression in the United States. The ongoing effects of legal/colonial violence are addressed in Louise Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy. In the novels The Plague of Doves (2008), The Round House (2012), and LaRose (2016), Erdrich examines the question of criminal jurisdiction, criminal impunity, reparation and tribal sovereignty. NB: The novel The Round House will be examined in depth and excerpts from the other two novels will be provided in class.

-          The second part of the course will look at poets who have created works through the appropriation of trial documents. Beginning with the foundational work of Charles Reznikoff, Testimony: The United States, 1815-1915: Recitative (1965-2015), the course will then examine three contemporary poetic works: Vanessa Place’s Tragodia trilogy, and notably Statements of Fact (2010), M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! (2006) and Reginald Dwayne Betts’ redaction poetry (found in Felon, 2019). Each work performs different operations on its source material and establishes a singular relationship to the institution that produced it; each work also engages with conceptions of justice that lie beyond the law. Students will be encouraged to reflect on how such documentary poetic works may — or may not — carve out critical spaces which use literature to speak back to the law.

-          Évaluation session 1

o   Contrôle continu : deux examens écrits sur table (mi-semestre et fin de semestre)

o   EAD et Dérogatoire : un examen sur table de 3h

-          Évaluation session 2

o   Rattrapage (présentiel/dérogatoire/EAD) : un examen sur table de 3H

-          First Session

o   Continuous assessment: 2 written exams in class

o   EAD and exceptional exam: a 3-hour written exam

-          Second Session

o   a 3-hour written exam

Dans le cadre de cet EC, l’usage de l’IA pour aider à la réalisation des travaux de contrôle continu soumis à évaluation est interdit. Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire appel à une IA générative à des fins de documentation, recherche d’idées, construction, rédaction ou édition.

-          Anglais niveau minimum B1

o   Développer une conscience critique des savoirs dans un domaine et/ou à l’interface de plusieurs domaines

o   Identifier, sélectionner et analyser avec esprit critique diverses ressources spécialisées pour documenter un sujet et synthétiser ces données en vue de leur exploitation

o   A handout of excerpts and texts will be provided in class and on the coursenligne website.

o   Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves, HarperPerennial, 2008

o   Louise Erdrich, The Round House, HarperPerennial, 2012

o   Louise Erdrich, LaRose, HarperPerennial, 2016.

o   Johnson v. McIntosh (1823), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21/543

o   Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/30/1

o   Worcester v. Georgia (1832), https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/31/515

o   Charles Reznikoff, Testimony: The United States, 1885-1915: Recitative, Black Sparrow, 2015

o   Vanessa Place, Statement of Facts, Insert Blanc Press, 2010 ; Statement of the Case, Insert Blanc Press, 2011; Argument, Insert Blanc Press, 2011.

o   M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong! Wesleyan University Press, 2006.

o   Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon, Norton, 2019.

o   James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 1973

o   Synthesis, n° 13: Just Art: Documentary Poetics and Justice, 2020: https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/synthesis/article/view/27557