TSleuthing toward Bethlehem : Oxford's Tarama, Jerusalem's Ohayon, and historical devices in detective fiction / 15. On my careers in crime / Steven Wilf. Part I. Criminal Histories: 2. Mercy at the Areopagus: a Nietzschean account of justice and joy in the Eumenides / Daniel Telech ; 3. Suborning perjury: a case study of narrative precedent in Talmudic law / Barry Scott Wimpfheimer ; 4. A man for all treasons: crimes by and against the Tudor state in the novels of Hilary Mantel / Alison L. LaCroix ; 5. Representing Anne Green: historical and literary form, and the scenes of the crime in Oxford, 1651 / Marina Leslie ; 6. Ccold-blooded and high minded murder: the "case" of Othello / Richard Strier and Richard H. McAdams ; 7. What's love got to do with it? sexual exploitation in Measure for Measure / Pamela Foa -- Part II. Race and Crime: 8. Justice Thomas and Bigger Thomas / Justin Driver ; 9. Reconciliation without anger: Paton's Cry, the beloved country / Martha C. Nussbaum -- Part III. Responsibility and Violence: 10. .Kidnap, credibility, and the collector / Saul Levmore ; 11. Premeditation and responsibility in The Stranger / Jonathan Masur ; 12. Walking away: lessons from "Omelas" / Saira Mohamed and Melissa Murray ; 13. Vefore the law: imagining crimes against trees / Mark Payne -- Part IV. Suspicion and Investigation: 14. Crime scenes: fictions of security in the antebellum American borderlands / Caleb Smith ; 15. TSleuthing toward Bethlehem : Oxford's Tarama, Jerusalem's Ohayon, and historical devices in detective fiction / Steven Wilf.
Summary:
"Lawyers and fiction writers have always confronted crime and punishment. This age-old fascination with crime on the part of both authors and readers is not surprising, given that criminal justice touches on so many political and psychological themes essential to literature, and comes equipped with a trial process that contains its own dramatic structure. This essay collection explores this profound and enduring literary engagement with crime and criminal justice. The essays in this collection span a wide array of genres, including tragic drama, science fiction, lyric poetry, autobiography, and mystery novels. The works discussed include works as old as fifth-century BCE Greek tragedy and as recent as contemporary novels, memoirs, and mystery novels. The cumulative result is arresting: there are "killer wives" and crimes against trees; a government bureaucrat who sends political adversaries to their death for treason before falling to the same fate himself; a convicted murderer who doesn't die when hanged; a psychopathogical collector whose quite sane kidnapping victim nevertheless also collects; Justice Thomas' reading and misreading of Bigger Thomas; a man who forgives his son's murderer and one who cannot forgive his wife's non-existent adultery; fictional detectives who draw on historical analysis to solve murders. These essays begin a conversation, and they illustrate the great depth and power of crime in literature."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.