| Semester 1, 2020 Online | |
| Short Description: | Law and Literature |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts |
| School or Department : | School of Humanities & Communication |
| Student contribution band : | Band 1 |
| ASCED code : | 091523 - Literature |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
Staffing
Examiner:
Other requisites
Students will require access to e-mail and have internet access to UConnect for this course.
Rationale
The study of literature is especially well-suited to address the cross-discipline and cross-territorial concerns of cultural narratives that invoke core legal, social, and political concepts in a globalised world. By focusing explicitly on the techniques and texts of the cosmopolitan field of ‘Law and Literature’, this course is designed to appeal to students interested in critical themes and issues in the popular imagining of the legal shared by the disciplines of English Literature and Law through consultation with the School of Law and Justice, the School of Arts and Communication, and the global law and literature movement.
Synopsis
This course examines a range of popular cultural and theoretical texts that discuss and portray law, justice, and related matters. By bringing together theory, law, and culture, students will have the unique opportunity to engage in a comparative evaluation of what law means to wider society, what law does outside of traditional legal modes, and how law envelops us all, with consequences ranging from the brutal to the brilliant and the weird. Using a number of authoritative, critical, and popular texts, students will be encouraged to develop their skills in close reading, comparative analysis, and critique. The course will enable students to become engaged readers of legal and theoretical narratives.
Objectives
On completion of this course students should be able to demonstrate:
- an advanced academic and professional literacy, recognising narrative techniques (in stories and film) and their application to legal and theoretical themes in a range of texts;
- effective discipline-based skills in classifying and critically interpreting historical and theoretical concepts and debates;
- the application of skills related to Objectives 1 and 2 in the interpretation and understanding of literature and culture in both oral and written form;
- ethical research and enquiry skills by adhering to principles of academic integrity;
- utilisation of creative skills and processes in developing innovative approaches to identified critical issues;
- evidence of reflective practice by developing the final research essay directly based on feedback from earlier assessment.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Discourse of Law and Literature | 30.00 |
| 2. | Narratives of Power, Debt, and Law | 30.00 |
| 3. | Mythologies of Gender, Bureaucracy, and Jurisprudence | 40.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
ALL textbooks and materials available to be purchased can be sourced from (unless otherwise stated). (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/textbooks/?year=2020&sem=01&subject1=ENL3007)
Please for alternative purchase options from USQ Bookshop. (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/info/contact/)
(Norton Critical Edition.)
Reference materials
Student workload expectations
| Activity | Hours |
|---|---|
| Directed ¾«¶«´«Ã½app | 39.00 |
| Independent ¾«¶«´«Ã½app | 126.00 |
Assessment details
| Description | Marks out of | Wtg (%) | Due Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY | 100 | 25 | 30 Apr 2020 | |
| RESEARCH ESSAY (3500 WDS) | 100 | 50 | 04 Jun 2020 | |
| READING QUIZZES | 100 | 25 | 05 Jun 2020 | (see note 1) |
Notes
- Please refer to ¾«¶«´«Ã½appDesk for further advice re due date/s.
Important assessment information
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Attendance requirements:
Students must attend and complete the requirements of the Workplace Health and Safety training program for this course where required.
External and Online:
There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students’ responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
On-campus
It is the students’ responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as lectures, tutorials, laboratories and practical work) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration. -
Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks. -
Penalties for late submission of required work:
Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4) -
Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course. -
Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative assessment items in the course. -
Examination information:
There is no examination for this course. -
Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
There is no examination in this course, there will be no deferred or supplementary examinations. -
¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
Other requirements
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Students can expect that questions in assessment items in this course may draw upon knowledge and skills that they can reasonably be expected to have acquired before enrolling in the course. This includes knowledge contained in pre-requisite courses and appropriate communication, information literacy, analytical, critical thinking, problem solving or numeracy skills. Students who do not possess such knowledge and skills should not expect to achieve the same grades as those students who do possess them.
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Assignments should be typed and must be double spaced. The new MLA style must be used in documenting all assessment items. See the ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Desk for details.
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Tape recording of tutorials and lectures is prohibited except in special cases at the discretion of the examiner.