Kelly Rich
Assistant Professor of English
Current and upcoming courses
Studying contemporary literature provides us with unique opportunities for enjoying, questioning, and understanding the world in which we live. This course engages a range of genres, media, and histories, and it approaches creative writing as an evolving system of artistic production that both reflects and influences society. We will examine how literature addresses urgent problems such as economic inequality, technological change, structural prejudices, and failures of governing systems. We will also pay close attention to the ways in which these texts construct contemporaneity: some renderings of the now are haunted by the past, others aim to embody a moment that is simultaneous with its experience, while still others are defined by their orientation toward a future to come. Through this work, we will cultivate a deeper appreciation of literary and artistic production, as well as learn how to participate in and shape conversations around its meaning.
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This course explores the complex relationship between literature and law, focusing on how each represents and responds to violence and its aftermath, especially in terms of memory and repair. Our goal will not be to judge the efficacy of literary and legal projects, but rather to study how they imagine and enact issues of testimony, commemoration, apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We will seek to understand how different forms of life correspond to the various legal theories and codes we’ll encounter, and how literature challenges or corroborates these specifically legal subjects, life worlds, and behaviors. We will also ask whether there are cases in which literature intervenes in jurisprudence, imagining or demanding its own model of law. The class will explore these issues in relation to existing twentieth-century juridical paradigms such as postwar military trials, human rights, reparations, and reconciliation. (ENG 334 and PEAC 334 are cross-listed courses.)
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This course explores the complex relationship between literature and law, focusing on how each represents and responds to violence and its aftermath, especially in terms of memory and repair. Our goal will not be to judge the efficacy of literary and legal projects, but rather to study how they imagine and enact issues of testimony, commemoration, apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We will seek to understand how different forms of life correspond to the various legal theories and codes we’ll encounter, and how literature challenges or corroborates these specifically legal subjects, life worlds, and behaviors. We will also ask whether there are cases in which literature intervenes in jurisprudence, imagining or demanding its own model of law. The class will explore these issues in relation to existing twentieth-century juridical paradigms such as postwar military trials, human rights, reparations, and reconciliation. (ENG 334 and PEAC 334 are cross-listed courses.)