Book Description
âWith six enormously influential and widely discussed books to his credit, Stanley Fish is perhaps the most quoted, most controversial, most in-demand, and most feared English teacher in the world, and one of the very best essayists in any field. . . . Beginning as, and remaining, a specialist in the literature of the English Renaissance up to Milton, Fish has transformed himself into a highly influential, widely discussed professor of law as well. And as his latest collection of essays, Doing What Comes Naturally, demonstrates, his interests are global, and include not only literature and law, but linguistics, psychoanalysis, philosophy, professionalism, and theoretically, any intellectual discourse whatsoever. . . . [A] masterful book.ââGeoffrey Galt Harpham, Times Literary Supplement
âOf literary critics whose work comes to mind under the heading âtheory,’ Stanley Fish . . . has been preeminent as the orchestrator of a number of approaches to interpretation, chief among them reader-response criticism and deconstruction. . . . While no less rigorous than his earlier studies of Renaissance literature, Doing What Comes Naturally is a handy textbook for those who wish to catch up on the variety of questions to which literary criticism can usefully address itself today and to see a deconstructive method in action in various intellectual contexts, particularly in examining questions of literature and law.ââPeter Meisel, New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
The right sort of medicine for certain types........1998-12-20
"Doing What Comes Naturally" is perhaps one of the best recent expressions of a certain type of American literature. That type can be found in the writings of such persons as Mencken and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Philosophically, the expression for it is "pragmatism," but what it really is is probably best expressed by a phrase written by Fish for another book. The book is called "Professional Correctness," and the phrase is "how stupid can you be?" That, in a line, pretty much sums up the thought of Fish's predecessors, and sums up the book Fish has written here. Fish's book is a fairly good one to read if one needs to have one's stupidities pointed out; a better source, however, of this sort of thing is still Mencken's "Chrestomathy." Nevertheless, Fish has the advantage over Mencken of being alive, and is thus in a better position to call our own most recent stupidities by name. So from that point of view Fish is worth reading.
Book Description
Death, wrote Walter Benjamin, lends storytellers all their authority. How do trials, in turn, borrow their authority from death? This book offers a groundbreaking account of the surprising interaction between trauma and justice.
Moving from texts by Arendt, Benjamin, Freud, Zola, and Tolstoy to the Dreyfus and Nuremberg trials, as well as the trials of O. J. Simpson and Adolf Eichmann, Shoshana Felman argues that the adjudication of collective traumas in the twentieth century transformed both culture and law. This transformation took place through legal cases that put history itself on trial, and that provided a stage for the expression of the persecuted--the historically "expressionless."
Examining legal events that tried to repair the crimes and injuries of history, Felman reveals the "juridical unconscious" of trials and brilliantly shows how this juridical unconscious is bound up with the logic of the trauma that a trial attempts to articulate and contain but so often reenacts and repeats. Her book gives the drama of the law a new jurisprudential dimension and reveals the relation between law and literature in a new light.
Customer Reviews:
interesting and important, but not that new.......2004-05-12
Felman's new book is a significant contribution to the contemporary questioning of trials and witnessing, and carries on her line of thought on testimony from her work of recent years, particularly from the book on testimony that she co-authored with Dori Laub. In the contemporary fascination with memory politics and the role of trials in the twentieth century, it marks a welcome addition, but one that has to be read critically nonetheless.
Felman insists that the failure of testimony plays a constitutive role in testimony per se. The argument holds well throughout the book, even if its logic is downright maddening and at times rather moralizing (simplifying an objection to the extreme: why should the witness who doesn't fail, or the trial that is not marked by an expression of trauma, by qualitatively less significant than those who do?). The highlight of the work is the chapter on Arendt and Eichmann in Jerusalem, which indeed forms an important counterpart to the reading Arendt's own text. The essay on Benjamin is far less innovative or remarkable, but it is nonetheless worth reading as an attempt by Felman to approach the contemporary Benjamin debates from this line of questioning.
Among the lowest and least necessary points of the book is Felman's ferocious 5-page endnote #2 on Ruth Leys' criticism of Felman's friend Caruth. The note is itself almost worth the price of the book as an indication of how intelligent intellectuals will get personal and loud when they lack substantial arguments. This certainly does not speak well of the professionalism of the Caruth/Felman argument on trauma.
On its own, this book is primarily interesting as an extension of Felman's earlier work. In both the readings of Arendt and Leys, the reader is advised to contrast their texts to Felman's own. Accordingly, the book is at its best when read in contrast to opposing positions. Still, it is not clear whether those who already dislike Felman and Caruth's approach to trauma will be moved. Thus, the problem with the "Juridical Unconscious" is that it adheres to an all-too-easily identifiable line of argument, which it articulates over and over and over. The argument is useful, but hardly so important as to be exhaustive of the intricacies of contemporary trials.
Very interesting.......2003-07-27
Shoshana Felman's eloquent writing and her excellent choice of sources to quote made this a great book. I would especially recommend reading it in conjunction with Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" because Felman refers to Arendt's arguments frequently, offering a fresh perspective.
Book Description
In this notable volume, well-known authorities from the worlds of law and literature take a probing look at how and why stories are told in the law. Such experts as Alan Dershowitz, Martha Minow, Janet Malcolm, Catharine MacKinnon, and John Hollander discuss how narratives presented at trials and in Supreme Court opinions are told and listened to, and how they affect legal thinking and judgment.
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Semiotics and Legal Theory (Legal Semiotics Monographs)
Bernard Jackson
Manufacturer: Deborah Charles Publication
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ASIN: 0952893819 |
Product Description
Semiotics and Legal Theory is an exercise in exposition, comparison, criticism, and construction. Jackson takes two very different intellectual traditions - structuralist semiotics as represented by A.J. Greimas and modern (mainly positivist) legal theory as represented by Hart, MacCormick, Dworkin, and Kelsen¡Xand by juxtaposing them seeks to clarify and assess their respective semiotic presuppositions, in order to lay some foundations for a semiotically sensitive theory of law. This book is designed for both jurists and semioticians. To facilitate access across the disciplinary divide, Jackson provides an abstract at the head of each chapter, which serves as both a summary and a conclusion to each section.
Book Description
Taking inspiration from the heated discussions that preceded the birth of federal government in the United States, Larry Siedentop investigates what we can reasonably expect and what we have to fear from a united Europe. Despite the profound hostility between skeptics and proponents of a united Europe, the outlines of serious public debate have barely been sketched. While skeptics talk of national sovereignty and invoke the spirit of wartime resistance, Europhiles embrace the idealism of eurozones and sound economic management.
Larry Siedentop examines whether representative government is feasible across the vast physical scale and human diversity of Europe. He explores the threat to local autonomy and individual freedom, and he anatomizes the widely different political cultures of Britain, France, and Germany. He balances throughout an understanding of the great theorists of supranational government, especially Montesquieu and De Tocqueville, with a deep, though critical, appreciation of contemporary Europe. Siedentop argues that it is only on a publicly discussed and commonly agreed upon constitution that one can hope to build a democratic Europe equal to the pressures it will have to withstand.
Customer Reviews:
Refreshingly non-ideological.......2006-11-10
In a European context sometimes dominated by the endless and tediously ideological debate "Social Model versus Ultra-Liberalism", Siedentop's contribution is refreshing in it's high mindedness and breadth of scope. In this sense he can claim to follow in Tocqueville's footsteps.
In the European Union and the United States he sees the flag bearers of the ideals of Occidental Liberalism in its classical sense, of the principles of the Enlightenment. In particular he emphasises the importance of Individualism and Christianity's role in its appearance in Europe. Individualism he contrasts with Tribalism. Whereas in an Individualistic society the Individual is the indivisible "atom", in a Tribal society the Family (in a sense closer to Extended Family, or Clan) is the atom. Examples of Tribal or Clannish societies are Sicily or the Middle East. They are places where classical Liberalism does not yet prevail. Examples of Individualistic societies are the US and Western Europe. They are places where classical Liberalism prevails.
Siedentop takes this as the starting point and then argues for what he believes is the best way to preserve and advance what he considers as the Great Western Liberal Project. He supports this first general and rather abstract part of the book with very interesting historical arguments.
The value of the book therefore resides mostly not in the actual solutions and directions it proposes (a European Senate, the EU as a Federal superstate modeled on the US, avoiding French dirigisme) but in the way it frames the problems. In other words the questions raised are far more interesting than the answers.
Among the recurring themes in the book is the argument against French dirigisme, centralisation and bureaucratic unaccountability. It is a compliment to the depth of his political and historical thought (especially as an American living in the UK) that he does not mean this as an attack on the French system *in France*, but a warning against a transplant to Brussels. He simply claims that while French society has had ample time to adapt to a strong, heavy handed government, notably by evolving a strong and extremely active and implicated civil society, European society has not. European civil society and citizenry do not yet have the leverage to counterbalance the excesses of an overly bureaucratic, non-transparent central government.
The French system however, has the advantage that it is able to act when needed, and this is no small virtue, especially in view of recent shameful cases of Euro-paralysis such as in the Bosnian genocide.
Another easy criticism one can bring is the fact that Siedentop presents the Family as evil and as an obstacle to the inevitable march of progress. This will likely not make him many friends in many EU countries such as notably Poland, Italy, or soon, Romania. He should have probably toned down his anti-family rhetoric, in the same way that he toned down his anti-dirigiste rhetoric.
The Big Questions emerging at the end of the book are two:
How can we find a compromise between paralysis and unaccountability? The French system can act, but it can often lose touch with the people resulting in violent uprisings (some people may call these "system failures", other people may simply call them "feedback").
How can we find a compromise between the family (as in heartwarming Italian Restaurant advertising) and the family (as in brutal Iraqi or Pakistani tribal wars), or equivalently between individualism as freedom and individualism as alienation.
Overall the book is a valuable contribution to the European debate and essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of the European Project and of the Western world in general.
Democracy as balance between civil rights and civic duty.......2005-04-29
This is a book on moral philosophy that finds its point of departure in the "Federalist Papers" and the public discourse that preceded the adoption of the US Constitution. In the first chapter, "Democratic Liberty on a Continental Scale," one finds such terms as imagination, sympathy, balance, self-reliance, conscience, voluntary assent, respect, honor, judgment, character, diversity, etc.
This book is therefore a far cry from either a plan for European unity or an outright rejection of the present attempts. Siedentop instead elucidates both the history and the forms of democracy against the background of a moral outlook that values the individual above the family, tribe or culture, and he urges that this background receive its due recognition en route to a European unity based on a "culture of consent."
I have read this book three times, first as a copy editor for a major newspaper and twice again to renew my idealism about Europe's future, mainly because as an American who spends a fair amount of time in Europe, that idealism sags in the face of what I perceive as regimentation of the mind and spirit. To avoid ruffling the feathers of my European friends, I need the education and vision that Siedentop offers in this book. And he is above all an idealist, with a vision of a federal Europe that utilizes the best of the American experience, although without exactly replicating its form.
But as hindrances to that united Europe, he cautions against both economism (utilitarianism) which sees "one" as merely a unit of the "incidence of pain or pleasure," and multiculturalism in which the rights of the group supersede the rights of the individual. He calls for Europe to re-evaluate its Christian heritage, mainly because atheists and Muslims can see--and fear--that heritage as the root of liberal democracy, where Europeans have long since failed to see it.
For that reason, he sees Europe's lingering tradition of anti-clericalism as a hindrance to valuing the individuality that Christianity upheld. As he states it:
"...Christianity provided the moral foundations for modern democracy, by creating a moral status for individuals--as children of God--which was eventually translated into a social status or role." (p. 193) He even sees the secular movement for human rights as unwittingly predicated on that Christian view of the individual.
Siedentop's analyses have maintained their value in the six years that have included 9/11 and changes of leadership in France, Germany, and England, race riots in France, terrorist attacks in England, and rejection of EU referenda in France and the Netherlands. That said, the final two chapters, "Europe, Christianity and Islam" and "Political Moderation and Social Diversity in Europe" might read differently today in a number of details. But the fact remains the same:
"...one of the pre-conditions of successful federalism is a consensus on which area of decision-making belong to the centre and which ought to be reserved for the periphery. Today in Europe there is no such consensus."
Siedentop's conclusion, howeve, is: "Federalism is the right goal for Europe. But Europe is not yet ready for federalism."
[An addendum to this: In "Letters to Freya," Helmut James von Moltke writes that he was reading 'The Federalist Papers," and he and his Kreisau group in the 30's and the run-up to WWII were designing a federal democracy for Germany and Europe to replace what might be left after the war. This would have been a German-designed "EU" quite unlike what the French have created. One wonders how much of this filtered down in post-war thought from his English colleague in Oxford, Lionel Curtis.)
Hmmmm.......2003-07-03
Engaging but, as another another reader points out, Siedentorp is no de Tocqueville.
The ultimate conclusion is flawed although paradoxically this may be more apparent to British readers.
Europe is not the USA, it doesn't have the founding vision, it doesn't have the founding impetus and moreover it isn't starting from scratch with a relatively homogenous culture. In the EU, there is no sight of a single people or "demos" or anything remotely approaching one.
France, Germany and Belgium (or "Old Europe" in the famous words of Donald Rumsfeld) may be different (although even that is questionable).....but these countries are not synonymous with the EU.
Siedentrop is however to be congratulated for not being a "blinded europhile". He has approached his subject with some vigour and the fact he suggests that any other nation on earth might be a model for the EU is contrary to true "believers" who have stopped suggesting such models. This is because (a) it tends to suggest that they are trying to build a superstate which they consistently deny and (b)they are usually shot down on various points of detail by Euro-sceptics.
Insightful Primer.......2002-01-03
This is a very engaging and readable primer on federalism, its history and various forms. Siedentop advocates not so much a British solution to EU federalism, as a German one with a written constitution and clear seperation of powers between Union and member states, and judicial review. He also advocates creation of a European Senate indirectly elected by national legislators to preserve the Federal character of the union.
A Work of Intelligent Skepticism.......2002-01-02
This is a most impressive book. Drawing lessons from the American experience of creating a continental, federal union and inspired by 19th Century French liberals such as Tocqueville and Guizot, Siedentop takes a skepticial (but sympathetic) look at the current project to create a "United States of Europe". The book is grand (even majestic) in its scope and (deliberately) provocative in its claims. The author is a political theorist and intellectual historian, which is the key to its appeal. There are countless books on the EU out there, written by political scientists and economist, full of arcane details and figures. This book, by contrast, is written from a larger perspective, drawing on the author's apparently vast knowledge of European social, cultural and intellectual life. The style is engaging and straightforward. The book will appeal most to journalists and very senior bureaucrats, I think. (Judging by the endorsements on the cover, this is indeed the case.) It will probably be judged too sweeping and general by most academic specialists and too intellectual and abstract by most ordinary readers. It is a work of popular scholarship or "high journalism", in the highest and best sense of that term. There is still an appreciation for such things among British journalists (although it is diminishing), unlike their American cousins, for whom this book will probably seem far too substantial to engage their attention for long. The principal villains of the piece are the French elites, who (the author alleges) have so far successfully imposed an elitist, centralist, statist vision on the construction of the European Union. The Germans have been too politically weak and self-absorbed to resist this aggressive French agenda, and the British are trapped in their own social and constitutional ancien regime, unable to offer any practical alternatives to their traditional rivals. So Siedentop turns to American federalism for an alternative conception of how the New Europe should develop. He is a Tocquevillian liberal who favors decentralization spiced with Rousseauian democratic republicanism. One of his principal complaints about the debate on Europe is that economics has completely eclipsed the political, resulting in a union that is politically retarded and dangerous (one of his favorite words). At the very least, his assessment of the many dangers on the road to union in Europe deserves very serious consideration. Hopefully, it will help to raise the standard of debate on its future course.
Overall, a highly stimulating, engaging, insightful book that no one who is even remotely interested in the future of Europe can afford to overlook.
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Law's Interior: Legal and Literary Constructions of the Self
Kevin M. Crotty
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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ASIN: 080143856X |
Book Description
Legal semiotics emphasizes the contingency and fluidity of legal concepts and stresses the existence of overlapping, competing and coexisting legal discourses. In response to new problems, changing power structures, changing societal norms and new faces of injustice established doctrines are reconsidered, reformulated and partly replaced by competing doctrines and hypotheses. Given the relative indeterminacy of law, it is no surprise that the problem of interpretation has always been one of the focal points of attention for legal semiotics. Who has the power to define words and concepts? Who can successfully assume the power to speak on behalf of the legal community? Which methods are used to justify the power to define?
This book discusses the questions mentioned above from three, related perspectives:
- Legal theory (Part I). This part discusses how more traditional approaches have dealt with the problem of legal interpretation and indeterminacy, questions the methods applied in traditional legal theory and offers new theoretical tools to understand the problem of legal interpretation.
- Judicial reasoning (Part II). The insights discussed in Part I are refined using legal semiotics, speech act theory and rhetorics and applied to the legal reasoning of courts and tribunals either in common law and civil law traditions.
- Application of law in politics and diplomatic practice (Part III). Traditionally, the study of legal reasoning has focussed on the application of law by courts and tribunals. However, legal reasoning also takes place outside the courtroom and takes up in the political and diplomatic arena. Who is included and excluded by particular conceptions of law? How does law deal with the phenomenon of interculturality?
"Combining theoretical inspiration with a keen interest in case law, this volume will appeal to scholars and students of legal theory, jurisprudence, legal anthropology, postcolonial studies, indeed to anyone who’s interested in problems of interpretation in legal and political theory and practice. It should also come in very handy in the classroom." Ronnie Lippens, Professor of Criminology, Keele University
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The Bible and the Narrative Tradition
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 019507002X |
Book Description
Until recently, studies of the Bible centered on finding sources for historical knowledge, theological insights, or ethical advice, overlooking the true beauty of the words in the "book of books." This collection of six essays by noted literary critics and biblical scholars--including Harold Bloom, Hans Frei, Frank Kermode, James Robinson, Donald Foster, and Herbert Schneidau--breaks new ground by exploring the Bible as poetry, rhetoric, and narrative. The authors treat such issues involved in biblical narrative as its genesis, its revisionist dynamic, its fictional character, its interpretive nature, and its contradictions, prejudices, and claims. McConnell's lively, readable introduction elucidates and unifies the book's themes.
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Corporations and Information
Russell, Jr. Stevenson
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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ASIN: 0801823447 |
Books:
- Effective Environmental Assessments: How to Manage and Prepare NEPA EAs
- Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology (Wiley Trading)
- Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings
- Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
- Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
- Getting Up, Getting Over, Getting On: A Twelve Step Guide to Divorce Recovery
- Handbook of Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Processing (Materials Science and Process Technology Series)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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