The Literary Canon of Human Rights (2025/2026: Semester 2 – Spring)

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Cursusdoel

After completing this course students are able to:
  1. compare and distinguish among literary movements and become familiar with debates within the field of literary criticism;
  2. think critically through the interpretation of concepts (e.g., “the classic,” “the canon,” and “genre”) and through literary texts from different periods and cultural contexts;
  3. describe how processes of canonization have changed in relation to the history of human rights, and how they have been determined by a range of cultural, political and historical factors;
  4. demonstrate research skills by locating and interpreting sources, and reporting findings in writing and through presenting.

Relationship between assessment and learning goals:

assessmentrelates to learning goal
class assignments
midterm video presentation: TEDtalk
endterm paper




Vakinhoudelijk

Human Rights has been an object of literary studies since the 1980s-2000s. Tapping into the knowledge produced in this new field, this course reframes the history of modern literature as part of a broader development: the invention and history of human rights. This course explores a number of ‘classics’ in the history of Human Rights literature as well as a broad range of literary texts that discuss human rights from various perspectives but are not considered part of the literary canon. This course allows students to study these forms as they have evolved since the late eighteenth century and across the globe in oral and written modes (songs, poems, novels, (auto-)biographies, graphic novels/comics, and so forth).


Format There will be two seminar-style classes per week, and students will be expected to do all assigned reading in advance of each session. Because the course will be dynamic and discussion-based, there will be a particular focus on partner/small-group work and interactive discussion. Students will also be responsible for giving presentations and leading discussions on the literature for an assigned session as well as bringing to class specific questions related to the material. The required literature for the first half of the course will be made known before the start. There will be a number of primary texts to be delved into in depth.

Werkvormen

UCU hum 2 course

Toetsing

class assignments

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

final paper

Verplicht | Weging 40% | ECTS 3

midterm video presentation: TEDtalk

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Niet verplicht

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Ingangseisen

Er moet voldaan zijn aan minimaal één van de cursussen:

Voorkennis

Er is geen informatie over benodigde voorkennis bekend.

Voertalen

  • Engels

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

  • BOEK
    Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) (Norton Critical Edition 2012);
  • BOEK
    Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (1853) (Norton Critical Edition 2016)
  • BOEK
    Art Spiegelman, Maus (1980) (Complete Maus, Penguin 2013)
  • BOEK
    Madeleine Thien, Dogs at the Perimeter (2011) (Granta Books 2013)
  • BOEK
    Edouard Louis, Who Killed my Father, transl. Lorin Stein (Vintage Publishing 2018)
  • BOEK
    Anton de Kom, We Slaves of Suriname (Polity Press 2022 [1934]); in case you own a Dutch copy, you don’t have to buy the English version
  • BOEK
    Ta-Nehesi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau 2015)
  • BOEK
    Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (Cormorant Books Inc. 2017
  • BOEK
    Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (Vintage Publishing 2006).

Aanbevolen materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend

Coördinator

dr. S.P. van Bommel S.P.vanBommel@uu.nl

Docenten

dr. S.J.R. Adams s.j.r.adams@uu.nl

Inschrijving

Let op: deze cursus is niet toegankelijk voor studenten van andere faculteiten, bijvakkers mogen zich dus niet inschrijven.

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