Western Law, Russian Justice

Dostoevsky, the Jury Trial, and the Law

Gary Rosenshield

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780299209308
• eBook ISBN: 9780299209339
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Literature

    Gary Rosenshield offers a new interpretation of Dostoevsky's greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. He explores Dostoevsky's critique and exploitation of the jury trial for his own ideological agenda, both in his journalism and his fiction, contextualizing his portrayal of trials and trial participants (lawyers, jurors, defendants, judges) in the political, social, and ideological milieu of his time. Further, the author presents Dostoevsky's critique in terms of the main notions of the critical legal studies movement in the United States, showing how, over one hundred and twenty years ago, Dostoevsky explicitly dealt with the same problems that the law-and-literature movement has been confronting over the past two decades. This book should appeal to anyone with an interest in Russian literature, Russian history and culture, legal studies, law and literature, narratology, or metafiction and literary theory.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Western Law, Russian Justice
• 1. The Imprisonment of the Law: Dostoevsky and theKroneberg Case
• 2. Dostoevsky and the Kornilova Case:The Realization of Russian Justice
• 3. The Perils of Narrative Empathy: Dostoevsky,Buckley, Mailer, Styron, and Their Wards
• 4. The Brothers Karamazov: Prosecuting the Jury Trial
• 5. The Brothers Karamazov: Russian Justice
• Conclusion: The Court and the Authority of the Word
• Notes
• Index