Lawyers
and Literature
James R. Elkins
Guide to Reading Stories in the Education
of a Lawyer
I expect students to have questions about the stories (and poetry) we read—why are we doing this kind of reading in law school?—and I expect you will have questions about why we read the stories the way (the several ways) we will try to read them. To put these questions in the context of the course, I have tried in Stories in the Education of Lawyers, to put myself in your shoes and ask: what are we doing here? what is this Lawyers and Literature course of reading all about?
Table of Contents
Stories in the Education of Lawyers
Cover | Table of Contents
I have organized the chapters in Stories in the Education of Lawyers in a way that fits my eye, and my thinking about the course. The chapters could, without ill-effect, be organized much differently. The chapters are linked (and sometimes overlapping) but they would, I think, make perfectly good sense if you set about to read the chapters in random order.
For a basic orientation and law school context for the study of stories
in your education as a lawyer: Chapter1:
Claiming Law School as a Place of Stories.
In the first several weeks of the course, we will be reading stories
by Lowell Komie. Students interested in my writing about the Komie
stories, should read: Chapter2:
The Law World Gets Real; Chapter3:
Meditations on the Fictions We Live; Chapter4:
A Letter to My Friend, Lowell Komie
If you are interested in something akin to a syllabus, something that
doesn't look like or read like a syllabus, see: Chapter5:
Stories Take Center Stage and
Chapter8: Endnotes
and Detours: Rewinding
the Lawyers and Literature Course
I should forewarn you that Lawyers and Literature is not a traditional
Law and Literature course. The most obvious difference is that our
focus is on lawyers and the world in which we live our lives as lawyers,
and not on law and justice, a common theme in Law and Literature courses.
Lawyers and Literature is, in some broader context,
a "law and literature" course, but the course is most definitely
not a traditional Law and Literature course. On the fundamental difference
in making this shift in perspective from law to lawyers, see William
Domnarski, Law and Literature,
27 Legal Stud. F. 109 (2003) [excerpts
from the Domnarski essay]
As a novice law student—day one, One L—you learn that
reading judicial opinions (the primary texts assigned to read in law
school) requires some experience and, for many, a new strategy of
reading. You may find that in reading stories, you again, must rethink
how you read and begin to focus on how you are going
to read stories. I have tried to get at this problem of reading
and the work we do in the course, in:
Chapter8: Endnotes
and Detours: Rewinding the Lawyers and Literature Course.
Lawyers and Literature pretends to offer a "literary
course of reading." This may, for some, mean little more than
the fact that we are not reading "legal thrillers" by John
Grisham. For me, and I assume, for some of you, the idea of literary
reading is that we may well read for the pleasure of reading but we
are also reading for what we can learn about ourselves and about the
world we inhabit with others (strange creatures as they so often turn
out to be). I have tried, in a rather diffuse way, to provide further
context on this idea of literary reading, by turning to the work of
others and reporting on what I have found. For my report, see:
With infinite
patience, or, having developed an inordinate curiosity about the course,
you decide to continue your about the course reading, you
may find the "compilation" of ideas and perspectives in
Chapter 8 of interest.
Lawyers and Literature is a reading course,
and, properly conceived and fully executed, it would be a writing
course. Reading stories is one thing, writing about and writing
with stories is a different proposition. For a teacher's conversations
about writing the course, see:
Chapter9:
Talking with Rebecca and Clara about Their Encounter with Fictional
Lawyers
Beginning a book, even a "little book" of the kind I have
presented to you here, is a daunting task. I might say the same about
bringing these "chapters" to a close. Knowing that I have
failed in the task, I present: Epilogue:
An Autobiographical Postscript
Lawyers and Literature
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