Rhetoric and evidence

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The book explores the evolving relationship and debates between law and literature in U.S. culture from the 18th to the 20th century, highlighting works by authors like Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Harper Lee, and William Gaddis. Since the early American republic, literary representations of legal matters have played a crucial role in shaping cultural perceptions of law and justice. A central theme in these representations is the complex relationship between language and truth, particularly the tension between rhetoric and evidence. By scrutinizing the truth claims of legal language and the evidentiary protocols designed to uphold them, literary works aim to offer an alternative discourse that translates legal abstractions into relatable narratives of individual experiences. While literature seeks to position itself as an ethical counter-narrative to the law, aspiring to be “the legislator of the world,” it must confront its own precarious connection to truth. This critical examination of legal rhetoric within literary fiction inevitably involves negotiating the inherent value of literary evidence.