Rett og litteratur. Fortellinger om forfall og fornyelse

Abstract

The article discusses recent Scandinavian research contributions in the light of an on-going debate about interdisciplinary studies on law and literature. What does, or should, the ‘and’ in ‘law and literature studies’ entail? This question not only concerns the field’s two objects, law and literature, but also the interdisciplinarity between juridical science and literary studies that it presupposes: what are the points of contact between law and literature; in what ways do they oppose each other, and how can the intersections between them be productively explored? The law and literature movement has become an international, broad field of study since its formation in the USA in the 1970s. This article is concerned primarily with its development in a contemporary Norwegian and Nordic context. The first part of the article explores the somewhat tabloid story of the field’s decline that unfolded in Norwegian media during 2016. The second discusses recent research contributions, in order to suggest productive ways in which to develop law and literature studies, by telling a story of renewal rather than one of decline.