ABSTRACT
From the mid-19th century up until the mid-20th century, British and American law courts took a much more direct and sustained role in policing literary texts. However, the justifications for, and manner of, policing these texts points towards a specific cultural and historical investment in representations of sexuality. Intervening between law and literature is discourse that cannot be readily assimilated to either side: psychoanalysis. The fetishistic fixation upon Master-Signifiers and the means by which structures are maintained can also be discerned in the history of literary criticism. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates the antagonistic relationship between the literary criticism and the law and the subsequent figuring of the text by the law as an embodiment of the death drive. It investigates the manner in which the law courts and the classroom form an alliance and together present the literary text as a life-bearing force.
