Trials and the impressionism of advocacy

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Abstract

Trials have often been written about as narrative events: the standard claim being that at trial one narrative is pitted against another with the verdict proclaiming the winner. This is a connection which privileges a certain view of narrative that is defined by a the coherence and closure produced by its plot and which is embodied, in literature, by realist fiction. While admitting the validity of this position, this chapter is intent upon extending it by examining the connection between trials and a different understanding and example of narrative fiction. Taking the Literary Impressionism of Joseph Conrad as a cue (and through an analysis of materials such as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent (1987) and the 2014 podcast Serial) it will be claimed that narrative’s capacity to contain non-sequential secrets, to convey latent messages and to produce meaning from its seemingly peripheral constituents have, to date, been under-analyzed in the context of a narrative understanding of trials. In conclusion, it will be argued that the impossibility of divorcing narrative from its instantiation in language has far-reaching consequences for how we might understand the narrative battle between prosecution and defense.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOxford Handbook of Law and Humanities
EditorsSimon Stern, Maksymilian Del Mar, Bernadette Meyler
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherOxford University Press
Chapter35
ISBN (Print)9780190695620
Publication statusPublished - 12 Dec 2019

Publication series

NameOxford Handbooks

Keywords

  • Trials
  • Narrative
  • Coherence
  • Impressionism
  • Story
  • Plot
  • Language
  • Conrad

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