Courses

In this course, we will examine the ways in which poverty in the United States is defined, represented, and regulated by legal and literary texts. Our main objectives will to be to develop an understanding of the myriad ways in which law and legal doctrine interact with the lives of those who exist on the economic margins of our culture. We will explore historical and contemporary perspectives on the meaning of poverty and what counts as poverty law and the legislative policies that govern it. As important, we will consider those aspects of poverty and its regulation that elude law or, more prosaically, that cannot be reduced to legal concepts. Readings will include a variety of texts, including cases, statutes, novels, short stories, films, and theoretical articles. Through these texts, we will explore such topics as federal and state support for impoverished families, the regulation of access to work, the criminal regulation of the lives of the poor, the proper role for lawyers in meeting the legal needs of indigent people. Moreover, we will examine the overlapping, sometimes contradictory, ideologies that construct representations of the "culture of poverty" in contemporary society.