Law in Literature: Legal Themes in Short Stories - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275940977 ISBN 13: 9780275940973

Publisher: Praeger Pub Text, 1992

Synopsis

Issues of legal philosophy taught in jurisprudence courses have been pondered by brilliant fiction writers. This anthology brings together forty law-related short stories by writers from various times and places, including Boccaccio, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, Kafka, Cather, and Asimov. Divided into five parts--Establishing Laws, The Judicial System, Punishment, Criminal Matters, and Civil Matters--and additional subsections, the stories demonstrate how writers have dealt with topics such as equality, finding the truth, capital punishment, murder, and domestic relations. The section introductions draw upon philosophy, psychology, literature, and law to point to the jurisprudential issues, and also utilize pithy epigraphs for this purpose. Questions are raised, but not answered: the reader is left to reflect on the age-old legal and ethical concerns that continue to trouble and inspire us.

This anthology has the ambitious purpose of bringing law in literature to the general public, to practicing attorneys, to students in English or philosophy courses, and to law school students in law and literature courses. Elizabeth Villiers Gemmette has chosen a widely accessible, yet diverse narrative voice. For readers who wish to delve further into the fascinating world of law through literature, the volume concludes with lists of law-related fiction and films.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"Either volume would be suitable for use not only in law schools, but also in humanities classes on college and university campuses; both are eminently teachable. Moreover, there is much here to attract any reader interested in the interrelations of law and literature."--MERTON A. SEALTS, JR., HENRY A. POCHMANN PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, EMERITUS; UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

About the Author:

ELIZABETH VILLIERS GEMMETTE, an attorney and partner in the firm of Gemmette & Gemmette, Schenectady, New York, also holds a doctor of arts degree in English and has taught literature and psychology. She is currently teaching a course in Law and Literature on the adjunct faculty of the Albany Law School, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Praeger Pub Text
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0275940977
• ISBN 13: 9780275940973
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Gemmette Elizabeth Villiers