This seminar explores the intersections of law, race, history, and justice through the literary and nonfiction works of Toni Morrison. A towering figure in American letters, Morrison interrogated the structures of law and justice not only through her fiction but also in her essays, speeches, and public intellectual work. From novels such as The Bluest Eye (1973), Beloved (1987), and Paradise (1998), to essays on Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, Bill Clinton, and O.J. Simpson, Morrison’s writing offers a profound critique of how law has functioned historically—as both an instrument of racialized control and a site of contested meaning—and invites us to imagine what justice might look like beyond formal legal structures.
Through close readings of Morrison’s novels and essays, alongside legal cases, critical theory, and historical documents, we will explore how legal regimes have shaped the lived experiences of Americans, and how literature can expose, complicate, and resist those regimes. Key themes include slavery and its afterlives, the construction of property and personhood, sexual violence and legal silence, gendered violence, segregation, and the limits of liberal legalism.
Course requirements include a prospectus and annotated bibliography for a research project on Morrison and the law, a class presentation of the project, and preliminary and final drafts of a paper (25-35 pages) on the project.
Haynes, Kevin V.