Cannons and Codes - Law, Literature, and America's Wars (Hardcover)

It can be said that western literature begins with a war story, the Iliad; and that this is true too of many non-Western literary traditions, such as the Mahabharata. And yet, though a profoundly human subject, war often appears to be by definition outside the realm of structures such as law and literature. When we speak of war, we often understand it as incapable of being rendered into rules or words. Lawyers struggle to fit the horrors of the battlefield, the torture chamber, or the makeshift hospital filled with wounded and dying civilians into the framework of legible rules and shared understandings that law assumes and demands. In the West's centuries-long effort to construct a formal law of war, the imperative has been to acknowledge the inhumanity of war while resisting the conclusion that it need therefore be without law. Writers, in contrast, seek to find the human within war-an individual story, perhaps even a moment of comprehension. Law and literature might in this way be said to share imperialist tendencies where war is concerned: toward extending their dominion to contain what might be uncontainable. Law, literature, and war are thus all profoundly connected-and it is this connection this edited volume aims to explore, assembling essays by preeminent scholars to discuss the ways in which literary works can shed light on legal thinking about war, and how a deep understanding of law can lead to interpretive insights on literary works. Some of the contributions concern the lives of soldiers; others focus on civilians living in war zones who are caught up in the conflict; still others address themselves to the home front, far from the theatre of war. By collecting such diverse perspectives, the volume aims to illuminate how literature has reflected the totalizing nature of war and the ways in which it distorts law across domains.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	August 2021
Editors:	Alison L. LaCroix (Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law and Associate Member of the Department of History) • Jonathan S. Masur (John P. Wilson Professor of Law) • Martha C. Nussbaum (Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Law School and the Philosophy Department) • Laura Weinrib (Professor of Law)
Dimensions:	243 x 165 x 26mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	336
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-750937-1
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Philosophy of language Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Jurisprudence & philosophy of law Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Law & society Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal history Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 - > General Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 - > General Promotions
LSN:	0-19-750937-1
Barcode:	9780197509371

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!