LIT 4205 Fall 2023 McGregory

American exemptionalism speaks to the U.S. supporting an international treaty as long as its citizens are exempt from a number of treaty provisions. Poverty has a devastating impact on basic human rights. This course does not intend to point fingers; instead, the assigned literary texts chiefly addresses the complexities of American behavior as relates to human rights. The course will undertake a genre approach that includes not only novels, but poetry, comic art, a play, and short stories. The texts chiefly reveal thought-provoking content negating a monolithic approach. Exemptionalism affects Women’s rights, children’s rights, health, and other inequalities. For our consideration, a vibrant civil society is generally considered to be essential for the protection of specific interest and concerns. The desire to counter formal inequality and discrimination is central to the moral DNA of human rights. We have fundamental human rights simply by virtue of being human: each individual’s claim to human rights pre-exists. However, many human rights violations occur precisely because individuals or communities have been targeted by others because of what distinguishes them from others. Sexual freedom has yet to be formally recognized as a fundamental human right. One of the vulnerable groups is children, who are compelled to live in a world not of their own making. Knowledge is power and, it provides a basis y which human rights violations may be accurately discerned and challenged.