Squaring Law and Literature: Materiality – Comparativity – Constitutivity

Achermann, Eric; Stierstorfer, Klaus

Abstract

The  relationship  between  law  and  literature  has  receivedwidespread and multifarious attention. Numerous attempts have been made tocategorize mutual relations, and the following constitutes one further attemptto do so. The essential thesis put forward here proposes the concepts ofmateriality,  comparativity  and  constitutivity  as  forming  the  coordinatescomprehensive enough to map the whole area of interrelations between lawand literature. Such an overarching cartography can accordingly be produced byanalyzing what happens to law when it becomes an object in a literary text andwhat happens to literature when it becomes an object of the law (materiality);by analyzing in what ways the twofieldscanbecomparedtoeachother,including a comparison between their respective concepts of comparison on ameta-level; and by looking at the ways law and literature can complement oreven (claim to) replace or supersede each other. In the process of thesejuxtapositions, great care will be taken to address law and literature as equalpartners which interact on the same level. Legal and literary studies, the twomajor disciplines involved, will be shown to meet in this collaborative venture toexplore and comment on the transformative processes in their respectivespheres. Similarly, none of the three aspects or approaches in the cartographywill be prioritized, which in itself can lead to innovative insight, as in the case ofmateriality reinvigorating, for instance, the study of“law in literature”which hadcome to be considered as slightly dated in some recent scholarship.