Law and Literature: W.H. Auden
法律與文學：奧登 (W. H. Auden)
Lifelong Learning
Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973), was a British poet (later a naturalized USA citizen), professor of literature, author of the famed Lectures on Shakespeare, based on lectures given in 1946-47 in New York, author or co-author of travelling literature such as Journey to a War, 1939, written in these Asian lands while the terrible Sino Japanese war was raging, author of libretti.
Furthermore, Auden was a Man of the World, Man of causes – good causes – such as freedom, peace, solidarity, justice, human rights, was usually fairly well regarded poetically but is, now, deservedly, extremely well regarded as one of the very top poets, if not the Everestian XX century poet in English language.
Law and Justice are both very much present in Auden’s poetry (and not only). In fact, W.H. Auden is undoubtfully one of the poets that best incarnate the modern and suitable Law and Literature topos.
In truth, the unavoidable Law Like Love (1939) is, in fairness, the subject of several legal studies focusing on the Law and Literature drive but it is also fairly used on papers, lessons and so on, regarding the holy grail quest of what is Law? What is Justice?
However, regardless of the obvious relevance of Law Like Love, there is more, much more, succulent material such as New Year Letter, Refugee Blues, The Hidden Law, or, needless to emphasize, The Unknown Citizen.
Programme
I
An introduction to Law and Literature: «Law as literature», «Law in literature», «Law alongside literature» – The jurisliterary: «The Republic of Letters and the Republic of Lawyers are one and the same, single and several in their imbrications.».
«Despite their apparent separation, law and literature have been closely linked fields throughout history. Linguistic creativity is central to the law, with literary modes such as narrative and metaphor infiltrating legal texts. Equally, legal norms of good and bad conduct, of identity and human responsibility, are reflected or subverted in literature’s engagement with questions of law and justice. Law seeks to regulate creative expression, while literary texts critique and sometimes openly resist the law.».
«Law and literature” brings together two overlapping bodies of thought, the legal and the literary, that have much in common, including an emphasis on rhetoric. Many works of literature deal with law (and its origins, which include revenge). Law itself is formulated and announced in writings, such as statutes, the Constitution, and judicial opinions, that sometimes exhibit a density, complexity, and open-endedness comparable to what one finds in literary works.»
II
W.A. Auden: The Man, the Citizen (of the World), the Poet:
– A Man of many good causes.
– Reflections on freedom and art, Auden´s response to UNESCO’s 1947 survey on the philosophical foundations of human rights.
– Auden is a giant of XXth poetry with a sustained engagement with the times in which he lived, (war at a scale unseen and unfelt, times of inhumanity, of unrecht, times of untermenschen doctrines, times of utter degradation of values and principles, times of refugees, times of dictatorships, particularly what Auden coined as «A Low Dishonest Decade»).
III
Audens’s canon of his general interest in the law and visions of Law and Justice (and how war affects those):
Law Like Love;
Unknown Citizen;
September 1939;
Refugee Blues;
In Time of War; (vg XVI – XX) – Sonnets from China (vg XII, XIII, XVIII).
IV
Addendum: Auden on Macau and Hong Kong
Details:
| Instructor: | Mr. Paulo Cardinal |
| Duration: | 8 Hours (4 Sessions) |
| Date: | 02 December to 12 December 2024 |
| Time: | Mon, Tue, Thu 19:00 – 21:00 Schedule: |
| Location: | University of Saint Joseph – IIha Verde Campus |
| Language: | English |
| Delivery of Mode: | Face-to-face Lecture |
| Tuition Fee: | MOP1,440 |
| Targeted Participants: | General public, Legal personnel, including legal experts at public departments, literature teachers, Macau and Hong Kong historians, political scientists |
Tuition fee special offered available for:
┃5% Discount (MOP 1,368)
- Early-bird application
** Applicants who submit a complete course enrollment on or before 18 November 2024 will enjoy the early-bird special offer in this course. Registrants will be notified of enrollment details via E-mail and SMS after we receive the registration. Don’t miss it!
┃10% Discount (MOP 1,296)
- USJ working staff and students
- Members of AAUSJ (Alumni Association of USJ)
- Next of kin relationship (spouses, children, and parents), for current internal staff, USJ students, and members of AAUSJ
- Former LLO students
Notes: the D.S.E.D.J. 2023-2026 Continuing Education Development Subsidy Scheme is NOT available for this course.
Remarks: the above Conditions of eligibility are subject to the terms in the “Policy of Lifelong Learning Public Programmes Tuition Fee Discount” (LLO-529). The full version is available on the LLO website (click here), please be sure to read the Terms and Conditions contained in this document carefully since any use of this tuition fee discount for lifelong learning public courses constitutes your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions set out herein. In the event of any dispute concerning the matters in this document, the Lifelong Learning Office of the University of Saint Joseph reserves all rights to make the final decision.
Bibliography
TONY SHARPE, W.H. Auden in context, CUP, 2013
STAN SMITH, The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden, 2009
HUMPHREY CARPENTER, W. H. Auden: A Biography, Faber & Faber, 2011
JOHN HAFFENDEN, W.H. Auden: the critical heritage, Routledge, 1997
NASSER HUSSAIN, ‘’Auden’s Law Like Love’’, Law Culture and the Humanities, 17, 2019
LINDA ROSS MEYER, ‘’Law Like Love?’’, Law & Literature, 2013
DONALD C. BAKER AND ELIZABETH D. BAKER, ‘’A Great English Poet On China, Hong Kong And Macao: W. H. Auden And ‘A Weed From Catholic Europe’’, 1995, https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/20025/1127
STEPHEN BURT, ‘’”September 1, 1939″ Revisited: Or, Poetry, Politics, and the Idea of the Public’’, American Literary History, Vol. 15, No. 3
MELANIE L. WILLIAMS, ‘’Then and Now: The Natural/Positivist Nexus at War: Auden’s ‘September 1, 1939’’’, Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 31, No. 1, Law and Literature, 2004
NARA ALIGULOVA, ‘’The Unknown Citizen” and Auden’s Political Beliefs’’, Confluence, 2023
KIERAN DOLIN, A Critical Introduction to Law and Literature, CUP, 2007
ALEXANDRA J. ROBERTS, ‘’Constructing a Canon of Law-Related Poetry’’, Texas Law Review, Vol. 90, 2012
MARIANNE WESSON, ‘’Three’s A Crowd: Law, Literature, and Truth’’, Tulsa Law Journal, 1999
HOW TO APPLY
A three-step flow of “Registration, Notification, Enrolment” applies.
Applicants should first register (through methods listed in the “Registration” section on our website) during the application period of a Programme. Accepted Registrants will be notified through SMS and they must complete the application process in person during the period mentioned in the SMS, with a valid copy of Macao Resident ID Card.
A certificate of completion will be issued for participants fulfilling an attendance rate of 70%.
Withdrawal applications must follow stated policies.
Remark: Programmes may be cancelled due to insufficient registration.
