Law and Literature

Hellholes

pedagogryprof — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:49:42 +0000

As we discuss Guantanamo this week, I’d also like us to think about America’s treatment of its prisoners more generally. If you have a chance, please check out the New Yorker article I mentioned earlier in the semester:

Gawande, Atul. “Hellhole.” The New Yorker 30 Mar. 2009. The New Yorker. 11 May 2009 <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande>.

Protected: Guantanamo Reading

pedagogryprof — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:59:39 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

Readings for this Week

pedagogryprof — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:16:57 +0000

This week, we’ll consider two contexts of Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson: slavery in the U.S. and racial constructions of identity.

Slavery
Have you ever wondered how slavery was justified on philosophical, moral, and religious grounds? This week, please read the documents in The Nineteenth Century American “Conversation” on Slavery: Arguments in Support of Slavery for examples of such justifications. Pay attention to when each argument was published and on what rhetorical grounds each author makes his argument about slavery.

Race
This week, we’ll think about the way we think about race. As we consider Mark Twain’s novel, we’ll explore the following sites, which were put together by the legal department at the University of Dayton:

Ian F. Haney Lopez, What is Race?

Ian Lopez Haney, White by Law

Ian Haney Lopez, The Racial Classification Cases

D. Marvin Jones, “Race, Sex, and Suspicion”

Final Paper Online Resources

pedagogryprof — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:48:21 +0000

As you explore the social, historical, cultural, and legal contexts of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson, please check out the following resources. Many of them include links to primary sources that you can use in your paper:

University of Virginia Puddnhead Wilson Page
Please check out this site!! It contains wonderful information on sources, advertisements, first editions, etc.

Making of America
“a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.”

From Slavery to Freedom: The African American Pamphlet Collection, 1824 – 1909.
“396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics. The materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington.”

Additionally, I have put a handful of books on reserve in the library, including:

Ron Powers, Mark Twain: A Life

Bloom, Harold, ed. Mark Twain

. . . a few documentary histories of slavery in the U.S. (titles forthcoming)

If you find a useful online source, please share a link to it in the comments!

Final Paper Resources

pedagogryprof — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:54:05 +0000

Prof. Gold’s teaching resources page: http://teachingresources.mkgold.net/

Click on “Paper-writing resources” and scroll to the bottom to find info on MLA citation and Works Cited examples. Also check out other links on the page that will help you refine your thesis statement, create an organized essay, and write good transitions, among many other things.

Purdue: MLA Formatting

Easybib.com: http://easybib.com

MLA Format for Legal Documents and cases: Owl at Purdue

Remember to use hanging indents on your Works Cited. (CNTL + T in MS Word)

Pudd’nhead Wilson Passages

pedagogryprof — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:53:52 +0000

Each group should post its passages and interpretations in the comments.

Chapter — Group
10 – 12 — Group 1
13 – 15 — Group 2
16 – 18 — Group 3
19 – 20 — Group 4

Paper Writing Resources

pedagogryprof — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:28:32 +0000

Here is the website I created to help you with your papers: Prof. Gold’s Teaching Resources

Billy Budd Keywords

pedagogryprof — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:02:47 +0000

Each group should post 2 of its keywords/passages/explanations in the comments. In your comment, please note your group number and please cite the page number for your chosen passage.

Group 1: George, Aysha, Alex, Margarita, Amber

Group 2: Paul, Lewis, Yvonne, Minerva, Lovinia

Group 3: Ben, Kemar, Ros, Helen

Group 4: Denise, Marie, Andy, Olivia, Ayanna

Group 5: Ameer, Henry, Thelma, Jessica

You can copy passages from Billy Budd from this online version of the text. Please mark of the quotation from your own writing by using quotation marks or some other mark.

Example:

Billy Budd
Keyword: Innocence
====
Billy Budd passage
====
Explanation of relation of keyword to passage.

Using Quotations

pedagogryprof — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:41:47 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Just a reminder that I have placed the Guide to Using Quotations on our course wiki. Please check it out and print it out from there.

If you have questions about grammar, usage, or format, please check out the OWL at Purdue, a wonderful writing resource.

If you have any other questions as you work on your papers, please leave them in the comments to this post.

Kafka’s Outsiders

pedagogryprof — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:53:25 +0000

Hi Everyone,

I’m providing you with a link to a critical article that I hope will be of use to you as you seek to build your own interpretations of Kafka’s The Trial though the writing assignment I have given you. We will discuss this article, along with the assignment itself, on Monday.

The article is a review essay of several Kafka translations, so you don’t need to read the whole thing. But the article provides a great deal of biographical and historical background that you should find useful as you write your paper. Feel free to quote from it and respond to it in your paper, as long as you cite your source correctly.

Follow this link to download the article (PDF).

I’m going to do a separate post on MLA format. Coming soon.