Citation

Gallerani GM. Law Cult. Humanit. 2022; 18(1): 229-249.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1743872118789984

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In the field of Law and Literature studies, contributions on poetry are rare. This article focuses on a selection of contemporary poetic works: Cornelius Eady's A Brutal Imagination (2001), Frédéric Boyer's Le Goût du suicide lent (1999), Maurizio Cucchi's Il disperso (1976) and Corrado Benigni's Tribunale della mente (2012). Their lyrical shaping of law establishes a difference from the model of "forensic" poetry that can be found in Charles Reznikoff's Testimony (1978-1979). Through them, this contribution shows how it is possible to challenge a reflection on the language of lyric poetry and that of law at the same time, if we interpret the lyric poetry as a non-narrative discourse. © The Author(s) 2018.

Language: en

Keywords

contemporary poetry; epideictic discourse; law and poetry; lyric poetry; performative function; reasonable person; stereotype