Practicing Imagination. „Bleak House” by Charles Dickens within legal education Cover Image

Ćwiczenia z wyobraźni – Samotnia Charlesa Dickensa w prawniczym curriculum
Practicing Imagination. „Bleak House” by Charles Dickens within legal education

Author(s): Agnieszka Czarnecka
Subject(s): Education, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Studies of Literature
Published by: Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
Keywords: Bleak House; Charles Dickens; Court of Chancery; law and literature; legal education;

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the relation between law and literature. In the first part, based on „Bleak House” by Charles Dickens, the shortcomings of the perspective „law and literature” are indicated. The author not only criticizes the idea of treating a writer as if he were a legal historian, but she also calls into question a broader vision of literature as a mirror of social and legal reality. In the second part of the paper, still in reference to „Bleak House” (Court of Chancery, lawyers, philanthropy), a different concept of fiction within legal education is developed. Literary artistry (the use of metaphors, personifications, caricatures) and not its similarity to reality, is seen as a valuable instrument in the cultivation the moral imagination and empathy of the lawyers.

  • Issue Year: 6/2014
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 273-286
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish