ABSTRACT
What if we balanced the Law and Society focus on legal consciousness by attending to what might be called legal unconsciousness? This chapter examines Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s contribution to the 1978 omnibus film, Germany in Autumn, and Lars von Trier’s Dogville, two melodramas (I argue) that explore the legal unconscious by focusing on the effect on legal subjects of the haunting violence of law. Since melodramas are often charged with being apolitical, I subject these films to the tests of political efficacy proposed by Jacques Rancière in his critique of the so-called “turn to ethics,” then offer a critique of that critique.
