Lawrence Friedman, ‘Introduction’ to Friedman
(ed) Law and the
Modern Condition: Literary and Historical Perspectives (2013)
Using fiction as a lens through which to view particular
developments in the law, each of the essays in the new book, 'Law and the
Modern Condition: Literary and Historical Perspectives' (Talbot Publishing,
2013), discusses a work of literary fiction — some classical (the tale of Ruth
in the Bible, the fiction of Franz Kafka and Herman Melville, the plays of
William Shakespeare) some modern (the post-September 11 fiction of William
Gibson, Ken Kalfus, Claire Messud, Ian McEwan and Helen Schulman) — that
concerns, directly or indirectly, the historical development of the law. This exploration
of legal history through fiction pays particular attention to its relevance to
our present circumstances and our growing concerns about terrorism and civil
liberties. Each essay considers the legal lessons about the fictional event or
events at its core, lessons that tell us something worth remembering as we
continue to chart law’s evolution. These lessons, like those that may be found
in all great literature, necessarily extend beyond the historical confines of
the characters and plot and background of each story to embrace the modern
condition — which, as these great stories suggest, is and always has been the
only condition.
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