Juridical Narrative in Alice’s Worlds: the Dimension of the Possible

• Main Author: Francesca Scamardella
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università degli Studi di Cagliari 2012-05-01
• Series: Between
• Subjects: Diritto; Letteratura; Sogno; Ragionevolezza
• Online Access: http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/between/article/view/425

Aim of this essay is to focus on possible links between Law and Literature, using two novels by Lewis Carroll: Alice in the Wonderland e Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found there. Analyzing the legal experiences made by Alice in the two novels I will assume that Law and Literature can be compared as worlds of the possible. In fact both Literature and Law represent a dimension of the possibility. In Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found there Alice wants to become Queen and her desire is possible through the law that she experiences as a social practice. On the contrary in Alice in the Wonderland the irrational law that comes from the Hearths Queen is refused by Alice: through this kind of law, prescriptive and sanctioning, it is not possible to realize her wishes. To say that law is possible means to assume that law is a social practice that Literature can narrate, exploring this dimension of possibility. As characters of novel, men can experience a kind of law whose contents are determined not only by rules and sanctions, in a law-positive way, but also by social and cultural representations, instances, opinions, ideas and, actions.