Law and Literature Journeys From Her to Eternity

Any attempt to understand the world by means of language, in law or in literature, imposes an artificial order on what is beyond our comprehension. However, whilst literature admits its own artificiality, law insists that it provides not only all the answers but all the right answers. Using examples ranging from Greek myth to contemporary writing, film and popular music, Aristodemou works from the assumption that not just literature but also law are fictions, and she suggests ways in which literature can help us understand better the mythic origins of law. In doing so she shows how we can learn from the law-making qualities of literature new ways of addressing and living with the fictionality of law.

Maria Aristodemou is Senior Lecturer in Law at Birkbeck College, London.