Reverence for the laws: representations of law in american culture - Raluca Andreescu

The book inquires into one of the most familiar sets of images and tropes in American culture. “The law” – whether in the form of the Constitution, statutes, or regulations – and legal actors (lawyers, juries, DAs, the FBI or local sheriffs, for example) are the stuff of countless artistic renditions of everyday as well as exceptional life in the United States. Classic novels, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, classic movies like 12 Angry Men, classic plays like Inherit the Wind, and classic series like NYPD Blue have shaped the American mind like few other cultural products. What is more, many real-world stories, often eventually made into such classics, have turned formerly ordinary real-life “legal” figures – from Erin Brockovich to Helen Prejean – into symbols of American justice, not to mention legal acumen.
Reverence for the Laws explores representations of “the law” in American culture in multifarious forms and contexts. It looks at, among others, trials, law enforcement, divorce procedures, or the prison system – to mention just a few. It covers a range of cultural products, from movies and TV series to novels and short stories. It examines individual legal actors, whether those literally isolated in prisons or maverick legal activists, as well as groups subject to the sometimes crushing weight of the law, such as sex workers. The book does this by leveraging the ample scholarly work of thinkers in the so-called ‘law and literature’ school of thought, as well as a variety of other subdisciplines and theories in the field of American Studies.

Raluca Andreescu