Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- OT-ANG17-390.13
- Title
- Elective Specialisation: Literature and Human Rights
- Usual semester
- Autumn
- Published semester
- 2026/27/1
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The primary aim of the course is to offer a glimpse into the various interactions between literature and human rights discourse through the discussion of theoretical and cultural studies texts and literary and artistic representations. The course consists of two main components: on the one hand, we are going to analyze the ethical stakes of representing suffering and human rights atrocities based on texts by Virginia Woolf, Susan Sontag, Judith Butler and Giorgio Agamben. On the other hand, we are going to look at the possibilities of talking about war, genocide and human rights abuses through literary and other artistic interpretations of the Holocaust, the apartheid system in South Africa and the Rwandan genocide among other topics.
- Course content
- Selected theoretical and cultural studies texts (see: list of compulsory readings). The theoretical discussions will be supplanted by analyses of literary texts and other cultural products (graphic novel, film).
- Assessment method
- The end mark is given based on in-class activity, a presentation, a home paper of cca. 5-6 pages and short (120-word) response papers on the compulsory readings.
- Bibliography
- Agamben, Giorgio (1995). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. (selected chapters) Butler, Judith (2009). Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? (selected chapters) Iweala, Uzodinma (2005). Beasts of No Nation. Krog, Antjie (1998). Country of My Skull. (selected chapters) Sontag, Susan (2003). Regarding the Pain of Others. (selected chapters) Stassen, Jean-Philippe (2000). Déogratias: A Tale of Rwanda. Woolf, Virginia (1938). Three Guineas. (selected chapters)