02:30P-03:45P TR (30) 3 cr.
This course will focus on the relationship between feminism and human rights activism. It is my expectation that the course will provide students with a broad knowledge of human rights as both an intellectual discourse and a realm of political action. We will examine the development of a "rights" discourse in the twentieth century, focusing on the tension between human rights activism devoted to ensuring civil and political rights to individuals and groups, on the one hand, and human rights activism dedicated to guaranteeing so called "second generation rights," such as social and economic rights, on the other hand. We will investigate the ways in which feminists have responded to human rights violations, drawing particular attention in recent years to gender-specific forms of human rights abuses such as dowry deaths, female genital mutilation, and honor killings. Our readings will consist of novels, human rights accounts, and testimonials. While we will analyze tropes and narrative strategies in these works, I want to emphasize that we will also contextualize our readings historically, politically, and in terms of international relations.
A tentative list of readings includes: Manuel Argueta, One Day of Life; Barbara Harlow's Barred: Women, Writing, and Political Detention; Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu; Michael Ondatjee’s, Anil's Ghost; Omar Rivabella's Requiem for a Woman's Soul; Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World; Bapsi Sidhwa, Cracking India; Gayatri Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?"; various reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Students should expect to write short response papers, one ten-page seminar paper, and take two exams.