“Reading as if for life”: Law and literature is more important than ever

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the law and literature movement has fragmented, expanded, and evolved to include fields as diverse as hermeneutics and narrative theory. This chapter discusses the developments in and contributions of these two strains of the law and literature movement and argues that each respectively provides us with important ways of seeing acts of interpretation and the use of stories in the legal culture. Hermeneutics provides an understanding of the phenomenon of interpretation that avoids the trap of choosing originalism or postmodernism as the accepted method of interpreting legal texts. Narrative theory provides tools for understanding and critiquing the burgeoning use of stories in the law.

Citation

Godwin Phelps, T. (2008), "“Reading as if for life”: Law and literature is more important than ever", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Special Issue Law and Literature Reconsidered (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 43), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 133-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(07)00606-0