Law and Literature [antikvár]

Preface ^^^ ecent years have seen the rapid growth of the field of inquiry ^^^^^ known as law and hterature, whose practitioners seek to apply the methods of legal analysis to literary texts and the methods of literary analysis to legal texts, and in other ways to explore the interrelations between these ancient fields of learning. Literary critics are beginning to join law faculties; five books on law and hterature have appeared since 1984 (they are cited in the Introduction and discussed in subsequent chapters); and the continuing spate of articles includes one by no less a public figure than the Solicitor General of the United States. See Charles Fried, "Sonnet LXV and the 'Black Ink' of the Framers' Intention," 100 Harvard Law Review 751 (1987), discussed in Chapter 5. Although my own love of literature goes back to early childhood, and I am a great believer in interdisciplinary legal studies (notably, economic analysis of law, which figures in this book as well), I took no interest in the law and literature movement until one of its members used the fiction of Franz Kafka as a fulcrum for criticizing some of my academic writings. See Robin West, "Authority, Autonomy, and Choice: The Role of Consent in the Moral and PoHtical Visions of Franz Kafka and Richard Posner," 99 Harvard Law Review 384 (1985). Later I reahzed that, like Moliere's character who had spoken prose all his hfe without knowing it, I had contributed to the field of law and literature without knowing it. See "The Homeric Version of the Minimal State," 90 Ethics 27 (1979), and "Retribution and Related Concepts of Punishment," 9 Journal of Legal Studies 71 (1980), both reprinted in my book The Economics of Justice (1981), chapters 5, 8. Not only is the field of law and literature interesting in its own right, but it illustrates an important trend in legal teaching and research. It is part of the expanding enterprise in academic law that is sometimes called