LIT 4205 Mcgregory Fall 2021

Ours has been called a global "age of rights," an era in which respect for human rights is considered the highest aspiration of the international democratic community. With its literary approach, this course endeavors to make human rights “real” by emphasizing limitations in our own backyard. Rather than a globalizing gaze directed elsewhere, since the legitimate aim of the International Declaration of Human Rights is to eradicate significant and systematic human suffering, a closer inspection of its erosion at home may guarantee our democratic idea of freedom, dignity, and personal equality for all. Ultimately, the course will interrogate models of oppression beyond the usual suspected –isms by centering adultism, crossculturally, adultism in U.S. Young people have been either disparaged as a symbol of danger or simply rendered invisible. At this moment in history, it is more necessary than ever to register youth as a central theoretical, moral, and political concern for a better future.