Law and Literature in French Studies

Abstract

Since its emergence in the late twentieth century, the law and literature movement has been enriched by contributions from the field of French studies. The purpose of this etat pr esent is to assess the breadth and collective significance of these contributions. First, some brief background. In the 1970s, legal scholars in the anglophone world began to revitalize the study of law by working with literary sources and techniques. This paved the way for ongoing dialogue between legal experts and literary specialists who, in turn, have incorporated elements of legal study into their scholarly remit. Today, ‘law and literature’ comprise a movement that makes a virtue of its interdisciplinary exchanges. Numerous monographs, edited series, and three leading journals — Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Law and Humanities, and Law and Literature (formerly known as Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature) — have established the movement’s scholarly credentials, and, moreover, have enlarged its remit. The study of law and literature may begin (and in some cases end) with texts; but increasingly legal-literary research is framed as part of a broader cultural enquiry into the arts of writing, reading, interpretation, representation, performance, and persuasion. Surveys of these new directions in law and literature have tended to focus on the English-speaking world, and predominantly on English-language sources. There is nonetheless a turn towards recognizing the significance and scope of legal-literary research beyond the anglophone world. Studies of French-language sources constitute a prominent subdomain within the global purview of law and literature. Over the last forty years, one can trace a