This book studies major works of literature from classical antiquity to
the present that reflect crises in the evolution of Western law: the
move from a prelegal to a legal society in The Eumenides, the
Christianization of Germanic law in Njal's Saga, the disenchantment
with medieval customary law in Reynard the Fox, the reception of Roman
law in a variety of Renaissance texts, the conflict between law and
equity in Antigone and The Merchant of Venice, the
eighteenth-century codification controversy in the works of Kleist, the
modern debate between "pure" and "free" law in Kafka's The Trial and
other fin-de-siècle works, and the effects of totalitarianism, the
theory of universal guilt, and anarchism in the twentieth century.
Using principles from the anthropological theory of legal evolution, the
book locates the works in their legal contexts and traces through them
the gradual dissociation over the centuries of law and morality. It
thereby associates and illuminates these masterpieces from an original
point of view and contributes a new dimension to the study of literature
and law.
In contrast to prevailing adherents of Law-and-Literature, this book
professes Literature-and-Law, in which the emphasis is historical rather
than theoretical, substantive rather than rhetorical, and literary
rather than legal. Instead of adducing the literary work to illustrate
debates about modern law, this book consults the history of law as an
essential aid to the understanding of the literary text and its
conflicts.
