Law and Literature - Hardcover

As Richard Posner reports, the first edition of this book is the most frequently assigned or recommended non-fiction work in 'law and literature' classes. Yet he thinks we tend to overrate the connections between the two, and certainly overrate the benefit to lawyers of exposure to literary texts and literary-critical ways of proceeding...His fair-minded presentation of the arguments is a good introduction to many...of the controversies that comprise the field of inquiry. -- Anthony Julius, "Times Literary Supplement" compelled to define his own positions more sharply. interwoven interpretations of dozens of literary works. impressive. Still more so is his ability to make the issues vividly clear to the average reader. a sensible and forthright introduction to the law and literature movement, which enlightens without blinding. The aw and literature movement, which is currently gaining momentum on US campuses, argues that lawyers can benefit from studying the literary merits of legal documents and from reading works of literature which deal with law...[The] movement is now courting controversy with suggestions that the Anglo-American legal system is intrinsically biased both sexually and racially. Some proponents claim trials should be radically restructured along narrative, rather than adversarial principles, and that this would allow marginalised voices to be heard. Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit, is sceptical about these arguments. His book is a sensible and forthright introduction to the law and literature movement, which enlightens without blinding. -- Jessica Smerin "Weekly Journal of the Law Society(UK)" An outstanding work, as stimulating as it is intellectually distinguished...Not only are [Posner's] arguments readily grasped, and driven home with an exhilarating forensic skill; in pursuing them, he is also compelled to define his own positions more sharply.--John Gross "New York Times " As Richard Posner reports, the first edition of [this] book is the most frequently assigned or recommended non-fiction work in 'law and literature' classes. Yet he thinks we tend to overrate the connections between the two, and certainly overrate the benefit to lawyers of exposure to literary texts and literary-critical ways of proceeding...His fair-minded presentation of the arguments is a good introduction to many...of the controversies that comprise the field of inquiry.--Anthony Julius, "Times Literary Supplement " A book filled with keen judgment, shrewd common sense, and great erudition worn gracefully. Posner's command of his materials--literature, law, and the bodies of commentary and scholarship attached to each--is truly impressive. Still more so is his ability to make the issues vividly clear to the average reader.--Merle Rubin "Christian Science Monitor " The law and literature movement, which is currently gaining momentum on US campuses, argues that lawyers can benefit from studying the literary merits of legal documents and from reading works of literature which deal with law...[The] movement is now courting controversy with suggestions that the Anglo-American legal system is intrinsically biased both sexually and racially. Some proponents claim trials should be radically restructured along narrative, rather than adversarial principles, and that this would allow marginalised voices to be heard. Richard A. Posner, chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit, is sceptical about these arguments. His book is a sensible and forthright introduction to the law and literature movement, which enlightens without blinding.--Jessica Smerin "Weekly Journal of the Law Society(UK) " A wonderfully original and instructive study of what literature has to teach about the law, the methods of legal argument, and the interpretation of statutes and the Constitution...Posner's adversaries are hopelessly outmatched in these arguments, but they are only supporting characters in a larger and more interesting drama--Mr. Posner's own exegesis of the relation of literature to law propounded in a series of arresting, brilliantly interwoven interpretations of dozens of literary works.--Christopher DeMuth "Wall Street Journal "

This edition continues to emphasize the essential social functions of legal and literary texts, but it also explores areas of mutual illumination and expands its range. It includes topics such as popular fiction about law, literary education for lawyers, the legal narrative, and judicial biography. Literary works from Sophocles, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Melville, Kafka, and Camus to contemporary fiction by William Gadis, Tom Wolfe, and John Grisham come under Posner's scrutiny, as do recent attempts to apply the techniques of literary analysis to statutes, judicial opinions, and the Constitution. Posner discusses the increasing efforts of legal scholars to enrich their scholarship by borrowing the methods and insights of literature - even by insisting that legal education is incomplete without the ethical insights afforded by an immersion in literature.