법과 문학: 정의의 문제

Abstract

Law and Literature: The Meaning of JusticeChoi, Kyong-do Law and justice have a common goal and concern in that both fields have been preoccupied with the meaning of justice. As such, the justice has played an important role in the development of law and literature. The issues of law are so central to human society that they virtually dominate the great literature of the world, requiring a keen attention of the readers. Literary justice has its own distinctive features as a symbolic or metaphoric dimension. However, the real justice is involved with the concept of legal justice, and the development of justice is inevitably connected with the legalization of justice.Although law and literature are regarded as belonging to the different realm, these two fields are closely connected through such literary concepts as narrative, rhetoric, or even a point of view. In the reality of law, especially in court, these concepts appear in the process of legal battles. Given the fact that we live in an age when the justice is severely challenged by every aspect of our culture, the reestablishment of the idea of justice is urgently needed. Even in literature, the practical understanding of law and its effects is inevitable since the reality of literature is not remote from many social and cultural phenomena that the law brings about. The crisis of justice leads us to have a more dynamic approach to the reality of law wherever it occurs. After all, there are more similarities than differences between law and literature that need to enhance the prospect of this area as an interdisciplinary study.