Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Law and Literature
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 24813
Module Lead	Rex Ferguson
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module will introduce students to a vibrant area of current interdisciplinary scholarship: namely, the study of law and literature. Such study can be split into two related categories. Firstly, law in literature reflects upon the variety of ways in which law has been represented by literature in a range of periods. Secondly, law as literature examines the way in which the range of interpretative practices utilised by lawyers and legal scholars can be productively viewed as analogous to the work of literary theorists – in other words, the law can be read as a text. With these dual topics in mind the sorts of texts examined in this module will range from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Charles Dickens’ Bleak House and Julian Barnes’ Arthur and George to theoretical work by, amongst others, Peter Brooks, Stanley Fish and Jerome Bruner. Similarly, the issues raised by the module will range from representations of justice (both poetic and juridical); the fact-finding employed by both the criminal trial and realist novel of the nineteenth century; notions of authorial intention in terms of literary production and the framing of legislation; and the determining/illustrating of criminal states of mind.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate a keen awareness of the interpretative value of interdisciplinary study and its implications in specific relation to the study of law and literature. Show a good understanding of the theoretical frameworks that underpin the study of law and literature. Illustrate the ways in which law and literature influence, impinge and illuminate each other. Produce cogent and well presented written arguments which utilise both legal and literary resources in order to make their case.
Assessment	24813-01 : 4,000 word essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessments: 4,000 word essay Reassessment: 4,000 word essay
Other
Reading List