Narrative Structures: Law, Literature, Journalism, Film, Northwestern University (Pritzker)

This course will compare the narrative techniques of novelists, journalists, film directors, and trial lawyers. In particular, the course will explore the devices employed by narrators to use stories as a means of persuasion. While trial lawyers are understood to be advocates, the persuasive aspect of storytelling is not always evident in other contexts. By examining novels, plays, films, and newspaper accounts, we will learn to identify the narrator's point of view, whether it is evident or concealed, while searching out alternative or suppressed stories that might also be supported by the same facts. 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.