This course will examine how literature has helped to create and critique modern concepts of human rights and humanitarianism. It will focus on the ethical and political questions that arise from this discourse in contemporary works of literature from across the globe. This course will investigate what storytelling can hope to accomplish in the wake of mass violence and examine the new kinds of responsibility that these stories create in a globalizing world. It will analyze different visions of the human that enable these visions and explore how human rights and humanitarian practices relate to the history of Western imperialism. Topics will vary from year to year, but may include refugee narratives, truth commission testimony, aid worker memoirs, and fictions of witnessing.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1.     Analyse literary and cultural narratives in relation to theories of human rights and humanitarianism

2.     Think critically about cultural discourses of human rights and humanitarianism

3.     Produce close readings of literary and cultural texts

4.     Create coherent analytical arguments with the key concepts of the course

5.     Reflect on and discuss your own learning as it relates to the course 

• 500-word journal reflection (10%; addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5)
• 1500-word research essay (30%; addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4)
• 2500-word research essay (50%; addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4)
• Tutorial participation (10%; addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 5)

The workload will consist of two hours of lectures per week, one hour of tutorial per week, and approximately eight hours per week of independent study.

12 units of 1000 level courses. This course has no corequsites or incompatibilities.

Assumed Knowledge: a first-year English or Gender, Sexuality and Culture Course

Indicative texts may include:

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Andrew Miller, The Optimists

Dave Eggers, What Is the What

Sindiwe Magona, Mother to Mother

David Park, The Truth Commissioner

Kenneth Cain et al, Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures

A reading brick and film screenings will also be provided.

Students will need to have ready access to Wattle in order to avail themselves of reading e-bricks.