LEGAL FICTIONS: |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Prof. Kendall JOHNSON
kjohnson [@] hku.hk Office Hours: Tuesdays: 10am-12; RR Shaw Tower 7.43 Office: Run Run Shaw Tower 7.43; or by Zoom appt. |
"The government of the Union rests almost entirely on legal fictions.
The Union is an ideal nation that exists only in the mind so to speak; intelligence alone reveals its extent and its limits." -Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835 |
In 1776, the idea of self-evidence grounded the philosophical assertion that “all men are created equal.” And yet, political, economic and social equality in the democratic republic of the United States has often proven less of a guarantee and more of a promise. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the “Declaration of Independence,” the recognition of a person as fully human has depended on assumptions regarding race, class and gender. The course examines the changing definition of United States citizenship by putting legal texts (the U.S. Constitution, federal and state laws, Supreme Court decisions) in dialogue with literary writings and film. In this course we will read stories by people whom federal and or state law barred from full citizenship. Through autobiographies, fiction, poetry and speeches, we will examine the cultural legacy of legal terms such as “domestic dependent nation” and “unlawful enemy combatant.” Our goal will be to pay careful attention to the language and genres of the American legislative and judicial system, and conversely to contextualize literature in relation to the legal history through which the U.S. Constitution has been reinterpreted and amended to broaden its terms of equality. We will also consider how different kinds of writing -- legal, scientific, autobiographical and fictional -- employ different rhetorical strategies to reach audiences, affect readers and influence the world.
ELECTRONIC FILES (.pdf FORMAT):
|
![]() PDF files are read by a program called Acrobat Reader. It is standard on most computers. You can also download it from the Adobe site. |
COURSE ASSESSMENT and REQUIREMENTS:
COURSE OBJECTIVES and LEARNING OUTCOMES:
|
PART I: FOUNDING DOCUMENTS: What is a nation? | ||||
WEEK 1: Monday, January 17: |
The Founding Documents of the United States and the Aesthetics of Revolution
|
| ||
WEEK 2: Monday, January 24 |
Jefferson, selections from Notes
on the State of Virginia -- Queries 5, 6, 11, 14, 18, and 19 (1785; pdf selections)
Posting #1: Consider the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. Choose a news event from the past 100 years that deals with one of these amendments; your news item can be from the United States or anywhere else in the world. In your posting to Moodle, please briefly summarize the event and its relation to a specific amendment. Please include a link to the new article if you can. Your posting should be from 200-300 words. Please post before Saturday, January 22 at 11:59 pm (midnight) please post a short response at Moodle group ENGL2165LALS3005LLAW3226_2021. Recommended Reading:
|
| ||
PART II: CIVIL RIGHTS: Slavery and Fugitive Writing | ||||
WEEK 3: Monday, Jan. 31: |
|
|||
CNY: Monday, Feb. 7: |
No class. Happy Chinese New Year | |||
WEEK 4: Monday, Feb 14: |
Harriet Jacobs,
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) Moodle posting #3: Moodle group for AMER2046LALS3005LLAW3226_2021 Posting #3: Compare the ways that Douglass and Jacobs represent literacy. What is one key difference and what significance does this difference have? Please cite a specific passage from Jacobs in responding. Group B: Please post before Saturday, February 12 at 11:59 pm (midnight); Group A: Please reply to a post by Sunday, February 13 at 11:59 pm (midnight) Moodle group for ENGL2165LALS3005LLAW3226_2021. |
| ||
WEEK 5 Monday, Feb. 21: |
Henry David Thoreau,
"Resistance to Civil Government"
(or, "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government"
or "Civil Disobedience") (1848; 1849; p. 189-213 in Aesthetic Papers pdf) Moodle posting #4: Moodle group for ENGL2165LALS3005LLAW3226_2021 Posting #4: How does Thoreau characterise the significance of the vote? Explain the rationale behind his characterisation and / or the implications of his characterisation. Group A: Please post before Saturday, February 19 at 11:59 pm (midnight); Group B: Please reply to a post by Sunday, February 20 at 11:59 pm (midnight)at Moodle group for ENGL2165LALS3005LLAW3226_2021. |
![]() Portraits of Abraham Lincoln |
||
WEEK 6: Monday, February 28: |
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
Posting #5: Find a conversation or a scene in Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin that deals with an issue related to the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution or a law or judicial ruling of your choosing. (Please cite the novel in your response.) In choosing the scene, you might consider how and why the novel is asking you to think about the rights of citizenship, or federal or state law. Or, you might explain how Stowe is illustrating a crisis regarding the definition of rights. Group B: Please post before Saturday, February 26 at 11:59 pm (midnight); Group A: Please reply to a post by Sunday, February 27 at 11:59 pm (midnight) at Moodle group for ENGL2165LALS3005LLAW3226_2021. |
|||
Reading Week: Monday, March 7: |
No class Midterm Exam (TBA); due March 18 (Friday) by 11 pm via email MIDTERM EXAM Suggestions in regard to film and music-video analysis:
|
|||
WEEK 7 & 8: Monday, March 14 and March 21: |
Herman Melville, "Benito Cereno" in The Piazza Tales
(109-270) (1856)
|
|
||
PART III: SOVEREIGNTY: Removal, Allotment, Self-Governance, Self-Determination |
||||
WEEK 9: Monday, March 28: |
James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans (1826) Recommended reading: The Marshall Trilogy (1823, 1831, 1832); Indian Removal Act (1830); General Allotment Act (1887) (Jolie and Wing) ; Commissioner Cato Sells on competency (1917); Indian Reorganization Act (1934); Termination, Self Determination Prucha I (Removals) | Prucha II (Allotment, Reorganization, Termination, Self-Determination) |
|
||
WEEK 10: Monday, April 4: |
Black Hawk, Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak (1833) US Treaty with the Sauk and Foxes, 1804, from C. Kappler The Cherokee Memorials Williams Apess, "An Indian's Looking Glass for the White Man" and "Eulogy for King Philip" First editions:
|
| ||
WEEK 11: Monday, April 11: |
Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories (1921)
|
|||
Day following Easter: Monday, April 18: |
No class |
|||
WEEK 12 Monday, April 25: |
Charles Eastman, From Deep Woods to Civilization (1916)
Poems by Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Adrian Louis, Luci Tapahanso (TBA)
|
| ||
WEEK 13: Monday, April 28 and May 2: |
Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water: A Novel (1993)
Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman (2021)
|
|||
Final Essay due Wednesday, 5pm, May 18, by email
SFTL Online Evaluation (until Friday, May 6th) |