David Gurnham – författare

Sexual desire, and the possible dangers associated with its more extreme manifestations, provokes strong, albeit often contradictory reactions. Such reactions are a well-known stimulant of creative, juridical and scholarly activity, and the texts of law, literature and academic criticism respond to it in ways that suggest both of revulsion and fascination. But how are we to understand such responses, and what can they tell us about the relationship between law and its‘others’? Exploring these questions in the context of HIV transmission, on-street sexual exploitation and erotic asphyxiation, this book draws on psychoanalytic theory in order to understand the motivations behind legal, literary and cultural constructions of sexual offences, their perpetrators and victims. Its analysis of these constructions in a diverse range of sources - including appeal judgments in England & Wales and North America, criminal trials and their reporting, visual and linguistic cultures and both modern and ‘classical’ literature – will be of great interest to legal theorists and socio-legal scholars, as well as those with relevant concerns in the fields of literature and cultural studies.

Through the creative use of literary analysis, Memory, Imagination, Justice provides a critical and highly original discussion of contemporary topics in criminal law and bioethics. Author David Gurnham uses popular and classical texts, by authors including Shakespeare, Dickens, Euripides, Kafka, the Brothers Grimm, Huxley and Margaret Atwood to shed fresh light on such controversial legal and ethical issues as passionate homicide, life sentences, child pornography and genetic enhancement. Gurnham’s overarching theme is the role of memory and imagination in shaping legal and ethical attitudes. Along this line, this book examines the ways in which past wrongs are remembered and may be forcefully responded to, both by the criminal justice system itself and also by individuals responding to what they regard as gross insults, threats or personal violations. The volume further discusses the role of imagination as a creative force behind legal reform, in terms of the definition of criminal behaviour and the possible future development of the law. These ideas provide a useful and highly original perspective on contemporary issues of crime and society as they resonate both in legal and literary discussion.

The book brings together a range of socio-legal and law and humanities scholars to elaborate and explore the idea of the legal ‘masterplot’.There is a class of narrative, sometimes referred to as ‘masterplot’ or ‘metanarrative’, that stands above the plethora of other stories, plots, and myths that may be found in law. This book focuses on the masterplot concept as providing a productive yet largely under-explored way of seeing, understanding, and responding to legal controversies and socio-legal problems. Masterplots may be understood as those prevalent and enduring ideas and narratives that form the basis of expectations, assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices. In legal contexts, masterplots give shape and significance to particular experiences or issues. In aligning with them, legal arguments, judgments, and reforms gain acceptability and can be presented as authoritative, proportionate, and legitimate. Reflecting, from different legal perspectives and subdisciplines, on the masterplots at play in our current legal frameworks, this collection illuminates the often-hidden ways in which law functions.This book will appeal to students and scholars of socio-legal studies, sociology, social policy, and humanities approaches to law.

Law’s Metaphors: Interrogating Languages of Law, Justice and Legitimacy presents a series of essays that reveal how metaphors for terms relating to the theory and practice of law are utilized in legal texts, literary works, and in our popular imagination. Represents an innovative approach to interdisciplinary legal scholarshipFeatures new developments in theorizing law’s relations with language, society, and cultureIncludes contributions from European and North American scholars across several relevant disciplinesReveals the prevalence and power of the use of metaphors in the legal profession and in the popular imagination

Sexual desire, and the possible dangers associated with its more extreme manifestations, provokes strong, albeit often contradictory reactions. Such reactions are a well-known stimulant of creative, juridical and scholarly activity, and the texts of law, literature and academic criticism respond to it in ways that suggest both of revulsion and fascination. But how are we to understand such responses, and what can they tell us about the relationship between law and its‘others’? Exploring these questions in the context of HIV transmission, on-street sexual exploitation and erotic asphyxiation, this book draws on psychoanalytic theory in order to understand the motivations behind legal, literary and cultural constructions of sexual offences, their perpetrators and victims. Its analysis of these constructions in a diverse range of sources - including appeal judgments in England & Wales and North America, criminal trials and their reporting, visual and linguistic cultures and both modern and ‘classical’ literature – will be of great interest to legal theorists and socio-legal scholars, as well as those with relevant concerns in the fields of literature and cultural studies.