Module Code - Title:
EH6031
-
LITERATURE, FILM AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module aims to introduce students to human rights studies through the study of literature and film. Specifically, we will focus on self-referential narratives such as testimonies and memoirs, and films that engage with the memory of historical events that are either entailed human rights violations or are controversial for attempting to assume this identity. On successful completion of this module, students will be able to apply a critical and cogent awareness of methodological and epistemological concerns pertaining to the human rights discourse; multiple historical and political perspectives on the meaning and relevance of human rights in the international political sphere; key issues in the field of human rights; key disciplinary engagements with the field of human rights (feminism, marxism, authorship, ecocriticism, modernism, postmodernism); how to produce theoretically nuanced engagements with the field of human rights through literary texts and films.
Syllabus:
This module will function as a critical survey of post-World War II human rights discourses as they have been conceived in different narrative contexts and forms, from the United Nations declaration following World War II to the theoretical analysis of torture and war by Elaine Scarry, and from the autobiographical testimony of Nobel-laureate Elie Wiesel to visual and literary productions elucidating specific socio-political and cultural conditions where human rights have been at issue. While this module will begin by offering a general theoretical framework for discussing and understanding the function and place of human rights in contemporary society, its central focus will be to explore the ltierary engagements with the idea of human rights in various nations and cultures. The 4 specific cases that our readings will focus on are post-colonial and post-partition South Asia; the Armenian genocide; the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and the Rwandan genocide.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
To know the key theorists and writers in the field;
To understand the literary and theoretical debates pertaining to the human rights discourse;
To apply the knowledge gained by building conceptual and analytical bridges across specific case studies so as to synthesize otherwise disparate ideas;
To analyze literary themes addressing socio-political and cultural conditions that are associated with the human rights discourse.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
To evaluate contemporary literature in the field and offer critical responses to the literary analysis of others.
To articulate in an informed way their own attitudes to and values regarding the issues covered in the module.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
This module will be taught as a seminar, with all students expected to engage actively in every meeting, whether the discussion is a debate of theoretical issues, a collaborative close reading of a text, or a combination of both of these activities. Students will participate in rigorous discussion of ideas in the field. The major written requirement will be a research paper, which will enable students to compose extended arguments on complex topics, managing the needs of documented, evidence-based writing and creative analysis.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Aeschylus (Richard Lattimore, trans.) (1958)
Oresteia: Agaememnon, the Libation Bearers, the Eumenides
, Chicago University Press
Derdarian, M. (1997)
Vergeen: A Survivor of the Armenian Genocide
, Atmus Press
Krog, A. (2000)
Country of My Skull
, Three Rivers Press
Gourevitch, P. (1998)
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Mehta, Deepa (dir.) (1999)
Earth
, New York Video
Agoyan, Atom (dir.) (2002)
Ararat
, Miramax
Peck, Raoul (dir.) (2005)
Sometimes in April
, HBO
Suleman, Ramadan (dir.) (1997)
Zulu Love Letter
, Films du Paradoxe
An-Naim, A. et al (eds.) (1992)
Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Quest for Consensus
, University of Pennsylvania Press
Das, V. (2007)
Life and Words: Violence and Descent into the Ordinary
, University of California Press
Ignatieff, M. (2003)
Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry
, Princeton University Press
Ishay, M. (2004)
The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era
, University of California Press
Scarry, E. (1988)
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
, Oxford University Press.
Slaughter, J. (2007)
Human Rights, Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law
, Fordham University Press
Smith, S. and Schaffer, K. (2004)
Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition
, Palgrave Macmillan
Other Relevant Texts:
Agamben, G. (1998)
Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life
, Stanford University Press
Alston, P. and R. Goodman (2007)
International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals
, Oxford University Press
Douzinas, C. (2007)
Human Rights and Empire: The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism
, Routledge
Gibney, M., ed. (2003)
Globalizing Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures 1999
, Oxford University Press
Meckled-Garcia, S. et al, eds. (2005)
The Legalization of Human Rights: Multidisciplinary Approaches.
, Routledge
Mreeman, M. (2002)
Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary Approach
, Polity
Robertson, G. (2006)
Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice
, Penguin
Sen, A. (2009)
The Idea of Justice
, Allen Lane.
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
MACLCSTFA - COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
Yianna.Liatsos@ul.ie