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In this course, we explore the deep and multifaceted entanglement between law and literature. Anchored in the interdisciplinary field of law and literature, the class revolves around three methodological approaches: law in literature, literature in law, and law as literature. Beginning with Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, we will move across space and time in our cases studies, encountering texts as diverse as Ismat Chughtai's "Lihaaf" and Toni Morrison's "Desdemona." In each unit, we will read literary works alongside legal texts to explore the porous boundary between the two, considering how these disciplines collude, clash, and, together, generate new understandings of our world. By the end of the quarter, when we chart the narrative arc of four Supreme Court cases involving abortion, we will learn to read the law itself as a kind of literature - subjective, iterative, creative. No prior background in law or critical theory is required or assumed. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)

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The most gripping of all Shakespeare's history plays, Richard III follows a protagonist who - having killed the king - knocks off his own brother, his two nephews, and his wife on the way to securing the crown. Audiences have found it hard to look away from this work's magnetic, perversely charismatic embodiment of vice. The lead role is demanding (second only to Hamlet and Falstaff in terms of line count), often reserved for the stage and screen's finest actors. Yet this same play is perhaps the only Shakespeare tragedy in which, as Gilles Deleuze of all critics once observed, "the women do battle for themselves." No wonder the most recent screen adaptation drew a star-studded cast from Sophie Okonedo and Judi Dench to Benedict Cumberbatch. This course proceeds through two phases to link the interpretative and performing arts. It brings the capacities of close reading and literary study to bear on a collaborative staging of selections from the play. Participants first focus on the play-text and the creative openings afforded by Shakespeare's historical interlocutors (Thomas More, History of Richard III; The Mirror for Magistrates [ed. 1563]), modern works of literary criticism, and recent adaptations for screen and stage (including The Hollow Crown series [2016], dir. Dominic Cooke). The second half of this course draws from these insights towards a scaled-down performance of the play to be given at the close of the quarter. Along the way, guest lecturers will lead workshops to enrich our sense of the possibilities of script adaptation, stage direction, and dramatic performance. Students will not be graded on their performance as actors. This remains a literature-forward course; no prior experience in the theater necessary. Students willing to contribute to the final production through non-acting roles (e. g. as publicists, musicians, costume designers, stagehands, extras) are very welcome. Participants should reserve time for THREE additional rehearsal sessions to be held on Mondays at 7:30 pm.

How did medieval people interact with their broader environment? What can we learn from these interactions? In this course, we will explore how medieval literature and art situate human beings in relation to the nonhuman world, in ways that are simultaneously radically alien and resonant with our own modern perspective. Through a combination of creative and critical assignments, participants will reflect on how premodern modes of thought can illuminate our present, helping us envision new ways of interacting with our planet's many inhabitants.

Poetry and Magic investigates the interplay between poetic form and magic practice. Reading poems that assume a supernatural presence in the world - and the ability of the poet to interact with that presence - we'll discuss how magic poems work, why magic still holds appeal for readers and writers, and how an understanding of magic can function as a way of thinking about many kinds of poetry.

The rise of autofiction is the most significant reconfiguration of the relationship between reader, writer, and text in the past 20 years. Autofiction's negotiations between aesthetics and intimacy strike powerful chords with contemporary readers, transforming "plotless" books by Rachel Cusk, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux into bestselling international literary sensations. In this Creative Critical course, students will engage autofiction and autotheory as both creative writers and scholars. We will seek to grasp the genre's scope, power, questions, and potential.

In this course, we'll explore how time functions as a core element in narrative, shaping character as well as plot, as we read examples from the genres of time travel, the multiverse, and generation ships. We'll consider how representations of time are interwoven with depictions of space, and we'll discover that science fiction can allow for both social critique and the imagination of alternative worlds, all while telling an engaging story.

This seminar will ask you to consider stories not just entertainment or moral instruction, but as models of survival, joy, and personhood in a complex future. Frameworks of Ecocriticism, political activism, and narrative technique will inform our central texts - Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and Richard Powers's Overstory. The questions of our texts will be the questions of our course: in a fraying world, how might we imagine new ways of living, being, and thriving?

The stories we tell about ourselves are as diverse and rich as the people who tell them. Yet, the ways we tell those stories often follow familiar patterns. Why is that? And how can we innovate beyond these conventions to energize both the reader and the storyteller? This creative-critical seminar invites undergraduates to explore narrative identity theory through the study and practice of storytelling. Our focus will be on how lyric and narrative strategies can bring new vitality to personal "life stories." We will engage with three remarkable works that challenge traditional forms and offer fresh possibilities. We will also consider how life stories shape and express identity, examining the dynamic interplay between personal experience and cultural frameworks. Key topics include the role of storytelling in identity formation, the influence of cultural expectations on personal narratives, and the power of narratives alternative to dominant/conventional ones to better articulate the self. Students will engage with literary analysis, cultural critiques, and storytelling theory to deepen their understanding of how identities are crafted and communicated. Through discussions, critical analyses, and creative exercises, participants will experiment with narrating their own life stories while interrogating the influence of culture, memory, and imagination. This seminar encourages reflection on the paradox of belonging and self-expression, offering tools to expand and reimagine personal and collective identities. By the end of the course, students will have developed a nuanced understanding of storytelling as a means of self-discovery and social engagement, as well as honed their own narrative voices.