ENGL 009A. First-Year Seminar: Literature and Law

In this course we will explore the forms law and literature take as they work through similar concerns, determining how social systems should function and puzzling over the moments when they don’t. When does fiction appropriate the law’s penchant for articulating rights and defining relationships? And when does the legal imagination draw from literature? We will read works of tragedy, detection, confession and evasion as we sort through these questions, supplementing our conversation with critical legal theory, trauma studies, and case law.
Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Fall 2025. Patnaik.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

Access the class schedule to search for sections.