Fall 2026
Telling Stories About Rights
Dates: August 31, 2026 – December 16, 2026Day/Time: Monday; Wednesday 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM EDT
Level: 200-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Human Rights
Civic Engagement certificate requirement: Theories of civic engagement, democracy, and social action.
Human Rights certificate requirement: Course taught from a perspective other than that of law or politics.
Instructor: Thomas Bartscherer, Bard College
What can fiction tell us about human rights? And what can we learn about fiction and literature by focusing on themes of justice and injustice, suffering and struggle, oppression and resistance? This course will focus on a wide range of fiction, from a variety of writers and filmmakers with different backgrounds and from different parts of the world, that tell compelling stories about individual rights and communal experiences of justice and injustice. We will look at the ways in which literary forms can present and interrogate universalizing claims, and how themes such as political oppression, forced migration, disenfranchisement, racism, poverty, and lack of access to education and health care can affect the dignity of all humans. Readings may include: Sophocles' Antigone; Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine; Modiano’s Dora Bruder, Talty’s Night of the Living Rez, Camus’ The Plague; The Island by Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona; and Mukasonga's Cockroaches. Film screenings may include The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo), Hotel Rwanda (Terry George), and This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi). In addition to literary analysis, students will conduct and present original research on contemporary forms of storytelling in relation to human rights.
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS