Literature and Law
Literature and Contemporary Thought Series

The fields of literature and law intersect in frequent, and often surprising ways. This clear and concise book offers an introduction to the area, covering the history, key thinkers and ideas as well as detailed and fascinating studies into areas such as evidence and truth, inheritance, sex, vigilantism and justice.

Each chapter examines a number of familiar authors and texts including Shakespeare, Brecht, Austen, Dickens, Ishiguro, Beecher-Stowe, Atwood, Miller. The book also opens up the broader study of law as it relates to culture in such areas as film, television, and digital media and how they affect such issues as a right to privacy, copyright and creative reworking, and censorship.

Mark Fortier offers a concise, systemic introduction to the law and legal system for the lay person, covering basic notions of justice and law (fundamental justice, natural law, positive law) and the legal system (common law vs civil law, case law, statute, constitutional law, private law [tort, contract, property], criminal law, equity, basic rules of evidence, stare decisis, the adversarial system) as well as a very handy glossary of legal terms.

This is a fascinating guide to a very topical and increasingly relevant area of literary studies.

1. A Brief Account of Law and Literature (and Thereby of the Present Volume) 2. Literature v. Law: Institutions, Procedures, and Justice 3. Natural Law and Fundamental Justice 4. Property 5. Contract and Tort 6. Sexuality 7. Evidence and Truth 8. On Trial 9. Vigilantism and Extrajudicial Action 10. Toward Law and Humanities Appendix 1: What a Student of Literature Should Know about Law Appendix 2: Glossary of Legal Terms

Mark Fortier is a Professor at the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada. He has written and edited several books on aspects of performance, literature, history and culture.