ENG32840 Literature and Justice

Academic Year 2024/2025

PURPOSE AND OVERARCHING CONTENT
ENG32840 AUTUMN 2024
Co-convenors: Professor Eamonn Jordan, Rachel Fehily, MA, BL

PURPOSE: This third year module offers students an original, unique and ambitious opportunity to gain interdisciplinary knowledge through engagement with Literature from Page, Stage, Screen, Song and Musical Theatre, academic writers, critical thinkers and academic lawyers with a special interest in Literature and Justice; to focus their critical thinking on representations of laws, the legal system, justice, injustice and retribution in core literature and the opportunity to access current academic discourse. It offers students the opportunity to engage with these works, understand their ethical implications, their relevance to the articulation of human, social and cultural values, and transform their assumptions about the importance and effect of the representation of advocacy, justice, laws and the legal system. Students will examine each theme and/or representation and understand the particular forms of expression and how they rely or break with their own contexts and conventions, depending on their thematic focus and genre.

OVERARCHING CONTENT: Representations of the Legal System, Justice, Injustice and Retribution on Page, Stage, Screen, Song and Musical Theatre. Core Literature, Primary Texts and Secondary Readings, Thematic Approaches, Q and A with a practicing Judge/Barrister. For example, the lyrics of a protest song, the performance of a musical, a literary novel, an Irish play are different modes of representation of the content on the module. Critical readings will be chosen to evaluate the primary text.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

LEARNING OUTCOMES
ENG32840 AUTUMN 2024

On successful completion of the module students will:

(1) Have gained interdisciplinary insight into how themes relating to laws, legal systems, justice, injustice and retribution are represented on page, stage, screen, song and musical theatre.

(2) Explored a range of works including novels, plays, films, musical theatre, music lyrics and mini-series, each with different themes, that have been impactful and engaging as cultural productions.

(3) Become familiar with many legal terms, develop a strong working vocabulary of the key terms and concepts used to analyse representations of laws, legal systems, justice, injustice and retribution in the creative arts.

(4) Considered the various ways that writers, artists and composers represent laws, legal systems, justice, injustice and retribution.

(5) Analysed the social and political purposes behind the representations of laws, legal systems and its mechanisms in literature, drama, musical theatre, music lyrics, film and digital streaming services.

Indicative Module Content:

MODULE INDICATIVE CURRICULAR CONTENT
ENG32480 AUTUMN 2024

Each seminar has a thematic focus and a schedule of core texts and readings will be given in advance of the module commencement.

WEEK ONE: Introduction of the literature, themes and key legal concepts for the module

WEEK TWO: Case Study: Novel
Technology, gender inequality and particular laws and legal approaches to rape trials, can lead to injustice for victims of rape before the legal system, are represented in Louise O’Neill’s novel about rape culture and sexual consent in the Instagram era: Asking for It.

WEEK THREE: Case Study: Documentary Film
Ava DuVernay’s film, 13th, titled after the 13th amendment to the American Constitution which abolished slavery. ‘Systems of race control’ which have historical roots in laws that allow ‘involuntary servitude to continue and have led to ‘a prison-industrial complex,’ after abolition of slavery leading the intersection of race with mass incarceration in theUnited States, to perpetuate a form of slavery.

WEEK FOUR: Theme: Miscarriages of Justice, Retribution
Examining the representation of the Law and Legal System in Music and Musical Theatre.
Protest Songs and Musical Theatre, the spectator as Activist

WEEK FIVE: Theme: The Lawyer as a Hero
Seminar and Class discussion, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee (Also a Film)

WEEK SIX: Case Study: Hangmen, a play by Martin McDonagh
Seminar with Professor of Drama and author of seminal works on Martin McDonagh, Eamonn Jordan. Theme: The Death Penalty

WEEK SEVEN: The Politicisation of Law, Retribution
Shakespeare’s Law: ‘The first things we do, let’s Kill All the Lawyers’ (Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2) Seminar and Discussion of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (Play text or Drama on line)

WEEK EIGHT: Seminar: Guest interview with practicing Senior Counsel/Judge (TBC) about key themes and current issues of importance in relation to the representation of justice in literature.

WEEK NINE: Theme: Activism, Climate and Justice, Retribution, Sustainable Development Goals. Seminar on Erin Brockovich, a film by Steve Soderberg, Examining other various narratives in relation to activism and climate change.

WEEK TEN: Conclusion: Taking a Thematic Approach, Writing Wrongs, Guidance for Essay.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

75
Autonomous Student Learning

105
Seminar (or Webinar)

20
Total

200
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
APPROACHES TO TEACHING AND LEARNING
ENG32840 AUTUMN 2024

This module is seminar based. Students are expected to have engaged with the literature for that week in advance of each seminar. The course has a lecture and discursive part to each seminar each week and these sessions focus on distinctive aspects of the works and will tend to be practical and theoretical. The students will closely read and critically evaluate the construction of concepts of representation, social reality, discourse and consensus through works that communicate and inscribe ideas about law, the legal system, justice, injustice and retribution, and examine the theories and discourses around the specific cultural productions.

Each seminar will be based around a theme and/or particular works on page, stage, screen, song, musical theatre, and a reading. The context and conventions of the work, and the position of each reading in relation to laws, the legal system, justice, and injustice. I will screen clips from works to present students with examples of particular themes and representations. Each seminar will also be based around a class discussion of the work and reading; the context, the style, the impact.

The students will have an opportunity to communicate with each other in small groups or partners within the Seminars and there will also be some whole class discussions.

An interview in the form of a Q and A with questions from the students, with a barrister (Senior Counsel or Judge) on issues of importance around representations of justice in literature will comprise one seminar.

Professor Eamonn Jordan will lead one seminar on his speciality subject and recently authored book: 'Justice and the Plays and Films of Martin McDonagh'

Four responses to themes on the module of around 500 words (4 paragraphs) will be completed by the students with guidance and feedback from the course convenor as part of the module.

A 3,500 word essay based on the module content will be completed by the students with guidance and feedback from the course convenor as part of the module.

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment(Including Essay): End of Semester Essay of 3500 words based on the primary course material that will build on the continuous assessment, critical readings and discussions covered over weeks 1-10 n/a Graded Yes

60
Portfolio: Four short response pieces to assigned work over the course of the term. Time and guidance will be given during seminars for the completion of the response pieces 500 words each. n/a Graded Yes

25
Participation in Learning Activities: Contribution to in-class discussions within pairs/small groups in class. n/a Graded No

15

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback in relation to essay, assignments and class discussion contributions will be given individually and via online automated feedback of essay correction.

MODULE READING LIST (INDICATIVE)
ENG32840 AUTUMN SEMESTER 2024

Reading List may include: Primary texts from Page, Stage, Screen, Song and Musical
Links to Short relevant Secondary Readings for each text

Core Literature:
Lee, Harper, 'To Kill A MockingBird' (1960)
McDonagh, Martin, 'Hangmen' Faber & Faber (2015)
Trayvon Martin Tribute Songs by Beyoncé, Lester Chambers, Public Enemy, Plies, Lil Scrappy,
Will Hoge, Raheem DeVaughan, Styles P, Young Jeezy. (Childish Gambino)
O'Neill, Louise, 'Asking for It' Quercus (2015)
'13th' by Ava DuVernay, Documentary, free on Youtube (2020)
'Les Misérables' The musical, (adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo by Claude-Michel Schönberg, (1980 premiere)

For example:
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (1960) Any full text edition by the author
Saney, I. (2003). The Case Against To Kill a Mockingbird.
Race & Class, 45(1), 99-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396803045001005

McDonagh, Martin, Hangmen, Faber & Faber Hangmen (2015)
Jordan, Eamonn, Justice in the Plays and Films of Martin McDonagh, Palgrave Pivot (2019)
Chapter 1. Introduction: Beware of Justice (1-18)
Chapter 2. Incompetence and Corrupt Agents of the State (19-45)
DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-30453-9_1

Trayvon Martin Tribute Songs by Beyoncé, Lester Chambers, Public Enemy, Plies, Lil Scrappy,
Will Hoge, Raheem DeVaughan, Styles P, Young Jeezy. (Childish Gambino)
The Instant Protest Song
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-instant-protest-song

O’Neill Louise, Asking for It (Quercus) 2020
Rape Narratives, Women’s Testimony and Irish Law in Louise O’Neill’s Asking for It and Winnie Lee’s Dark, Rebecca Anne Barr
In: Hanna Adam and McNulty, Eugene, eds, Law and Literature, The Irish Case (2022)
Chapter 10, pp 195-216
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Barr-
9/publication/357053148_Rape_Narratives_Women's_Testimony_
and_Irish_Law_in_'Asking_for_It'_and_'Dark_Chapter'/links/6411c2fba1b72772e4fd3960/Rape-
Narratives-Womens-Testimony-and-Irish-Law-in-Asking-for-It-and-Dark-Chapter.pdf

13th by Ava DuVernay, Netflix, 2020 (Free on Youtube)
Juarez, Sara E. The Power of the Documentary: Examining the Effectiveness of Ava DuVernay’s 13th.
Cinesthesia 8.1 (2018): 2.
Ferchaud, Arienne, and Proffitt, Jennifer M, Television’s Streaming Wars,
Routledge (2023) Chapter 12: Pippert, Courtlyn, Netflix as an Authoritative Arbiter
of Credible Documentary Content: The Redefinition of Documentary in the Streaming Era

Les Misérables, adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo by Claude-Michel Schönberg, (Also a film and
Drama on line or Youtube)
Grossman, Kathyrn M. Figuring Transcendence in Les Miserables: Hugo's Romantic Sublime (1994) Pennsylvania State University Press, Chapter 1: Chaos and the Structure of Lawlessness
https://www.google.ie/books/edition/Figuring_Transcendence_in_Les_Miserables/CYfTZ09kszMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=inauthor:%
22Kathryn+M.+Grossman%22&printsec=frontcover.

Core Text:
Fortier, Mark, Literature and the Law, Methuen (2019)
Core Texts for further reference (TBC)