Languages of Migration: Literature, Law, and Language Justice, University of Chicago

For decades, human rights activists and lawmakers in the United States have been fighting for a person’s right to speak their native language before the law, implying that language justice could be achieved through the use of interpreters. At the same time, a new generation of poets and fiction writers has been exercising alternative approaches to language justice, shifting the focus from speakers to listeners, and from the legal to the personal. This course brings these seemingly separate discourses into conversation in an attempt to trace the assumptions that undergird different formulations of language justice in the late 20th century and 21st century. Drawing on Edward Said’s The Public Role of Writers and Intellectuals, we will examine NGO statements and immigration court hearings side by side with poetry and fiction by Monica de la Torre, Antonio Ruiz Camacho, Irena Klepfisz, Joseph Brodsky and others. As we analyze theories of identity, desire, language and responsibility and engage with thinkers such as Andrea Long Chu, Hannah Arendt and Aamir Mufti, we will consider the potential implications of bringing literature and law into conversation with one another. The University of Chicago has an internationally revered reputation in Law and Literature. Despite little evidence of active Law and Literature courses as at Spring 2022, there are a number of Law and Literature publications by Chicago-based scholars that indicate interest in the area. Notable examples include Richard Posner, Law and Literature (now in its third edition); Alison L. LaCroix, Richard H. McAdams, and Martha C. Nussbaum, Fatal Fictions: Crime and Investigation in Law and Literature; Alison LaCroix, Saul Levmore, and Martha C. Nussbaum Power, Prose, and Purse: Law, Literature, and Economic Transformations; Bradin Cormack, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Richard Strier, Shakespeare and the Law: A Conversation Among Disciplines and Professions; Alison LaCroix and Martha C. Nussbaum, Subversion and Sympathy: Gender, Law, and the British Novel; and Martha C. Nussbaum and Saul Levmore, American Guy: Masculinity in American Law and Literature. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.