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The words 'all rise' announce the appearance of the judge in the thespian space of the courtroom and trigger the beginning of that play we call a trial. The symbolically staged enactment of conflict in the form of litigation is exemplary of legal action, its liturgical and real effects. It establishes the roles and discourses, hierarchy and deference, atmospheres and affects that are to be taken up in the more general social stage of public life. Leading international scholars drawn from performance studies, theatre history, aesthetics, dance, film, history, and law provide critical analyses of the sites, dramas and stage directions to be found in the orchestration of the tragedies and comedies acted out in multiple forums of contemporary legality. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
List of contents
1. Introduction Peter Goodrich and Anna Kimmel; Part I. Forensis and Forensic Actors: 2. Law, rhetoric and fictionality in 'the age of theatre': a literary response to law as performance Lorna Hutson; 3. The poetics of hypokrisis in the early modern judicial theatre Subha Mukherji; 4. The outdoor stages of common law Piyel Haldar; 5. Law-text-performance Derek Miller; Part II. Affectations: 6. On dialogue: or legal performance in the affective space Jesus Velasco; 7. Performing for the audience Simon Stern; 8. Desiring children: vulnerability and the sex offender Jisha Menon; Part III. Transgressions: 9. The comediography of law Goodrich; 10. The force of laughter and a minor jurisprudence of refusal: A Question of Silence (Marleen Gorris, 1982) Bäak Ertür; 11. Oath taking and legal performance Marco Wan; 12. 'Naked Athena' and classical lines: Wayward aesthetics of the exposed body Anna Jayne Kimmel; 13. Coda / Cauda / Cado: what I learned from performing law; or, thereby hangs a tail Julie Stone Peters; Contributors; Index.
About the author
Peter Goodrich is Professor of Law, and Director of the Programme in Law and Humanities at Cardozo Law School, New York and Visiting Professor in the Division of Social Science, New York University Abu Dhabi. His most recent excursus was Vision and Decision (2023).Anna Jayne Kimmel is Assistant Professor of Dance at Corcoran School of Arts and Design, George Washington University and Affiliate Faculty at the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service. She is Associate Editor at Performance Research and board member of Performance Studies international. She has published in Dance Research Journal, Performance Research, Lateral, The Drama Review (TDR), and The Brooklyn Rail, as well as various edited volumes.Bernadette Meyler is the Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law at Stanford University. She is author of Theaters of Pardoning, and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities.
