This book is an original contribution to the field of law and literature. In addition to seeing law as a form of literature, it sees literature as a form of law, and examines the law-making qualities of fiction to explore the fiction-making qualities of law. Its examples range from Greek myth to contemporary writing, film and popular music, and suggest new ways of living with and entering the legal labyrinth. Aristodemou's style is both accessible and entertaining. The book is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates in law as well as other disciplines concerned with law and literature, jurisprudence, and other options addressing the intersections between law and culture.
Using literary examples from the Oedipus myth, through Shakespeare to modern authors such as Albert Camus and Angela Carter, Aristodemou argues that not just literature but also law are fictions, and she suggests ways in which literature can help us understand the mythic origins of law.
