Law and literature / Richard A. Posner.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Reflections of law in literature -- Law's beginnings: revenge as legal prototype -- Antinomies of legal theory -- The limits of literary jurisprudence -- Literary indictments of legal injustice -- Two legal perspectives on Kafka -- Penal theory in Paradise lost -- Interpreting contracts, statutes, and constitutions -- Judicial opinions as literature -- Literature as a source of background knowledge for law -- Improving trial and appellate advocacy -- But can literature humanize law? -- Protecting nonwriters -- Protecting (other) writers -- Conclusion. Law and literature: A manifesto.

Print version record.

Among the new elements of this revision are literary plagiarism, the law as depicted in films, television, and popular fiction, and the 'edifying' school of law and literature, which argues that literature can sharpen the moral sense of lawyers and judges. Hailed in its first edition as an "outstanding work, as stimulating as it is intellectually distinguished" (New York Times), Law and Literature has handily lived up to the Washington Post's prediction that the book would "remain essential reading for many years to come." This third edition, extensively revised and enlarged, is the only comprehensive book-length treatment of the field. It continues to emphasize the essential differences between law and literature, which are rooted in the different social functions of legal and literary texts. But it also explores areas of mutual illumination and expands its range to include new topics such as the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the Constitution, illegal immigration, surveillance, global warming and bioterrorism, and plagiarism. In this edition, literary works from classics by Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dostoevsky, Melville, Kafka, and Camus to contemporary fiction by Tom Wolfe, Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, and Joyce Carol Oates come under Richard Posner's scrutiny, as does the film The Matrix . The book remains the most clear, acute account of the intersection of law and literature.

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