Course Information

796 20 V - Seminar - Critical Race Narrative

Professor: Vincene Verdun
Credits: 3
Semester: 2008 Autumn
Second Writing? Yes
Seminar? Yes
Professional Responsibility? No

This seminar will focus on the relationship between narrative and law by using critical race theory and feminist legal theory to examine how race in America is a narrative of property and power. By reading a number of essayists and several novelists, we will explore such questions as: Who owns the narrative of slavery? Who can tell whose story? How has the law served as a totalizing presence in the lives of people of color? How do contemporary African American  scholars, and other Scholars of Color (Critical Race Theorists) challenge concepts such as “property,” “witness,” “evidence,” “white innocence”? All of the novels that we will read will have as their genesis or focal point issues of law. All of our legal theorists assume that “wherever there is law, there is narrative.”

• PREREQUISITE: NO FORMAL PREREQUISITE TO THIS COURSE

The course materials listed above are for informational purposes only and should not be considered final. Students must check with the Registrar for a current list of closed courses.