The Reflexivity of Law and of Literature

Abstract

“As observed by Hart in the opening lines of The Concept of Law, «few questions concerning human society have been asked with such persistence and answered by serious thinkers in so many diverse, strange, and even paradoxical ways as the question 'What is law?'». The question What is Law? has a profoundly different meaning for a jurist than the question What is Chemistry? for a chemist. The reason is that law would not be possible, it would not even exist, without the question What is Law?. Law, in other words, exists only through the question through which it interpellates itself. Law does not institute itself, it does not exist, outside the question on what it is, on what makes it what it is. A similar claim can be made for literature. Literature is nothing but the question What is Literature? – at least since, as observed by Maurice Blanchot, Mallarmé wondered Quelque chose comme les Lettres existe-t-il?: «this question is literature itself» when literature has become a concern for its own essence . It is this reflexive movement – such that law and literature do not get to institute themselves without the question on themselves – that must be examined, to indicate the point where their separation, their distance, remains radical”.

Keywords:

• Law
• literature
• reflexivity
• impossibility

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (Oxford: Clarendon, 1979 (1960)), 1.

2 M. Blanchot, The Space of Literature, Translated, with an Introduction, by Ann Smock (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 41.

3 Cfr. S.J. Shapiro, Legality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013 (2011)), 8.

4 J. Dickson, Evaluation and Legal Theory (Oxford: Hart, 2001), 17.

5 J. Raz, Can There be a Theory of Law?, now in Id., Between Authority and Interpretation. On the Theory of Law and Practical Reason (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 24. See also A. Marmor, The Nature of Law, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL: «https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/lawphil-nature/».

6 R. Alexy, “On the Concept and the Nature of Law,” Ratio Juris 21, no. 3 (2008): 290.

7 R. Alexy, “On the Concept and the Nature of Law,” cit., 292.

8 Cfr. F. Schauer, The Force of Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 4, 38 and ff.; Id., “On the Nature of the Nature of Law,” Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosphie 98, no. 4 (2012): 457–67.

9 A. Kaufmann, Prefazione. Ermeneutica e filosofia del diritto (1996), in Id., Filosofia del diritto ed ermeneutica, ed. by G. Marino, Milano, Giuffré, 2003, 6.

10 See J. Lecarme, “La théorie de la littérature selon Sartre et selon Blanchot,” Études sartriennes 10 (2005), 211–29; A. Ponzio, “Sartre e la letteratura. Fra impegno e dépense,” in Jean-Paul Sartre. Teoria, scrittura, impegno, eds. V. Carofiglio – G. Semerari (a cura di) (Bari: Edizioni dal Sud, 1985), 154–8; W. Marx, L’adieu à la littérature. Histoire d’une dévalorisation, XVIII^e-XX^e siècle (Paris: Minuit, 2005); T. Todorov, L. Moss, and B. Braunrot, “The Notion of Literature,” New Literary History, 38, no. 1 (2007): 1–12; J. Culler, Literary Theory. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 19–42.

11 P. Artières (ed. by), Michel Foucault, la littérature, les arts (Paris: Kimé, 2004); J.-F. Favreau, Vertige de l’écriture. Michel Foucault et la littérature (1954-1970) (Lyon: ENS Éditions, 2012); B. Moroncini, “La letteratura e il diritto alla follia. Blanchot, Foucault e la questione della letteratura,” Materiali Foucaultiani II, no. 3 (2013), 105–25; J. Revel, “Foucault e la letteratura: storia di una scomparsa,” Archivio Foucault 1 (1996), 13–24; J. Laurent, “Foucault et la littérature: une passante,” Critique 835, no. 12 (2016), 982–92.

12 M. Foucault, “Literature and Language,” in Language, Madness, and Desire. On Literature, eds. Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert, Mathieu Potte-Bonneville, and Judith Revel, Translated by Robert Bononno (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2015), 45.

13 M. Blanchot, “Literature and the Right to Death,” in The Station Hill. Blanchot Reader, trans. L. Davis, P. Auster, and R. Lamberton (Station Hill: Barryotown, 1999), 359.

14 M. Foucault, Literature and Language, cit., 45–6.

15 M. Foucault, Literature and Language, cit., 51.

16 R. Barthes, “Zazie and Literature,” in Critical Essays, trans. R. Howard (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1972), 117.

17 M. Blanchot, The Book to Come, trans. C. Mandell (Stanford, MA: Stanford University Press, 2003), 195.

18 M. Blanchot, Literature and the Right to Death, cit., 360.

19 G. Deleuze, “La letteratura e la vita,” in Critica e clinica, It. transl. by A. Panaro (Milano: Cortina, 1996), 18.

20 S. A. Schwartz, “Faux Pas: Maurice Blanchot on the Ontology of Literature,” SubStance 27, no. 1 (1998): 19–47.

21 M. Blanchot, The Book to Come, cit., 201.

22 C. Garboli, “Avvertenza,” in Stanza separata (Milano: Mondadori, 1969), XIII.

23 M. Foucault, Literature and Language, cit., 57.

24 M.-C. Ropars-Wuilleumier, “Sur le désoeuvrement: l’image dans l’écrire selon Blanchot,” Littérature 94 (1994): 113–24.

25 M. Blanchot, The Space of Literature, cit., 36.

26 J. Derrida, Demeure. Fiction and Testimony, trans. E. Rottenberg (Stanford, MA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 29.

27 J. Derrida, Before the Law. The Complete Text of Préjugés, trans. Sandra van Reenen and Jacques de Ville (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018), 69.

28 J. Derrida, Before the Law. The Complete Text of Préjugés, cit., 70.

29 M. Blanchot, Le «discours philosophique» (1971), in La Condition critique. Articles, 1945–1998 (Paris: Gallimard, 2010), 333–4. See G. Zuccarino, Blanchot, il neutro, il disastro, in P.A. Rossi and P. Vignola (a cura di), Il clamore della filosofia. Sulla filosofia francese contemporanea (Milano-Udine: Mimesis, 2011), 107–21.

30 M. Blanchot, Literature and the Right to Death, cit., 385.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tommaso Gazzolo

Tommaso Gazzolo is Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Law at the University of Sassari, Law School. In addition to articles and book chapters, his books include La scrittura della legge. Saggio su Montesquieu (2014); Essere/Dover Essere. Saggio su Hans Kelsen (2016); Il caso giuridico. Una ricostruzione giusfilosofica (2018); Una doppia appartenenza. Tullio Ascarelli e la legge come interpretazione (2019); Ius/Lex. Hobbes e il diritto naturale (2020).