10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 s usaNNe K Naller When Law Meets Literature The Emotional Value of Literary Texts 1 Introduction - The Question of Language Throughout history there has been a close relationship between law, emotion, and literature In pre-modern times, legal questions and related issues of religion, politics, morality, and affects were conveyed via poetic text formats, such as tragedy, epic poetry, and early forms of the novel During the modern era, from the 18th century and particularly from the 19th century onward, legal scenes and emotion scenarios have played an important role in literature; and as they are tied to a text, they are primarily negotiated in terms of language However, the challenge for literary approaches to law and emotion is not a merely linguistic one Legal acts and emotion scenarios are composed of different media constituents, are complex in spatio-temporal terms, and depend on all formats of knowledge Recognising these complex entanglements, more recent legal theories thus understand legal acts as determined by space, psycho-physical contexts, knowledge, and media constellations 1 Current theories of emotion also base their definitions of emotion and feeling on several components and their respective material and media-related constellations Christiane Voss, for instance, proposes an approach that as- 1 Sabine Müller-Mall, Performative Rechtserzeugung: Eine theoretische Annäherung (Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2012), Thomas Vesting, Die Medien des Rechts: Sprache (Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2011), Cornelia Vismann, Medien der Rechtsprechung (Frankfurt a M : Fischer, 2011), Kent D Lerch, ed , Die Sprache des Rechts. Bd. 1. Recht verstehen. Verständlichkeit, Missverständlichkeit und Unverständlichkeit von Recht (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2004), Karl-Heinz Ladeur, “‘Finding our text…’ Der Aufstieg des Abwägungsdenkens als ein Phänomen der ‘sekundären Oralität’ und die Wiedergewinnung der Textualität des Rechts in der Postmoderne,” Die Innenwelt der Außenwelt der Innenwelt des Rechts: Annäherungen zwischen Rechts- und Literaturwissenschaft, ed Ino Augsberg (Paderborn: Fink, 2012), 173-206, Friedrich Müller/ Ralph Christensen/ Michael Sokolowski, Rechtstext und Textarbeit (Berlin: Duncker Humblot, 1997), Thomas-Michael Seibert, Zeichen, Prozesse. Grenzgänge zur Semiotik des Rechts (Berlin: Duncker Humblot, 1996) 132 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 sumes that emotions per se are not already semantically charged In her understanding, they are an interaction of pre-verbal, physical experiences and a narrative frame 2 This interaction needs to be gradually developed and takes form as a constellation that concerns temporary perspectives and particular circumstances Therefore, issues of emotion, law, and literature must be based on a notion of language that does justice to the complexity of the topic at hands and that discards the idea of language as a rational sign bearer or as a simple tool for coding and decoding 3 Such an approach to language is seconded and made fruitful not only in literary studies, but also by advanced and critical theories of law Dietrich Busse, for instance, summarises the complexity of linguistic legal acts with the observation that the sovereignty of legal decisions and interpretations of the law cannot be delegated to the linguistic form of normative texts alone Rather, they are the result of a socially bound interpretation and application of texts realised by both applicants and recipients 4 Such a contextual and social understanding of the notion of law allows to consider emotions, or even to stress their impact on legislation and the application of the law Andreas Fischer-Lescano fully recognises the emotional dimension, the non-linguistic within the force of law and the field of social forces, in which the legal subjects are always involved 5 In order to demonstrate the validity of this alternative force of law, which does not put into question the normative side of the law, Fischer-Lescano reaches back to critical aesthetic theory and literature in the form of tragedy (Sophocles) and poetry (Heiner Müller) In his opinion, literature with its performative power of language and visualisation can deconstruct the violence within the logos of the law 6 As 2 Christiane Voss, Narrative Emotionen: Eine Untersuchung über Möglichkeiten und Grenzen philosophischer Emotionstheorien (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2004) 3 Kent D Lerch, ed , Die Sprache des Rechts. Bd. 3. Recht vermitteln. Strukturen, Formen und Medien der Kommunikation im Recht (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2005), Monika Schwarz-Friesel, Sprache und Emotion (Tübingen/ Stuttgart: Francke, 2013), Gesine Schiewer, Studienbuch Emotionsforschung. Theorie, Anwendungsfelder, Perspektiven (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2014) 4 Dietrich Busse, “Verstehen und Auslegung von Rechtstexten - institutionelle Bedingungen,” Die Sprache des Rechts Bd. 2., ed Lerch (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2004), 17 5 Andreas Fischer-Lescano, “Radikale Rechtskritik,” Kritische Justiz 2 (2014), 171-183; Christoph Menke, Law and Violence: Christoph Menke in Dialogue (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2018) 6 Fischer-Lescano, “Radikale Rechtskritik,” 176 When Law Meets Literature 133 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 a consequence, law and literary studies are challenged by affect theories and non-linguistic perspectives on law 7 Nevertheless, it must be noted that language plays a central role in literature as well as in law and for emotions Essential juridical acts are based on oral and written texts The indispensable normative element for modern legal systems - i e legal texts - is embedded in language and speech acts Emotions, in turn, heavily depend upon terminological definitions and linguistic descriptions It can even be said that emotions gained a place in pre-modern and modern forms of knowledge mostly through their terminological classifications (Aristotle would be an early example) 8 Emotions are linguistically determined But at the same time the linguistic component has to be seen as part of multi-constituted complexes where psychophysical (or physio-neuro-cognitive) elements interact with formal and media-related as well as linguistic modes and practices, which in turn trigger social actions and communication Emotions are basic conditions which allow us to function as communicating, social, political, biological, psychological, and ethical beings Emotions are thus always also about knowledge, rules, norms, and traditions as well as about individual memories and experiences 9 Against this backdrop, the relationship between law, emotion, and literature can be described as follows: As a modern, functionally indispensable social system, modern law is based on strategies of rationalising and standardising speech acts, on how institutions are organised, and on specific com- 7 Greta Olson, “The Turn to Passion: Has Law and Literature become Law and Affect? ,” Law & Literature 28 3 (2016), 335-353 8 Ute Frevert et al , eds , Gefühlswissen: Eine lexikalische Spurensuche in der Moderne (Frankfurt a M / New York: Campus, 2011) 9 Cf possible approaches to the ternisopic in Vera Nünning, Reading Fictions, Changing Minds: The Cognitive Value of Fiction (Heidelberg: Winter, 2014); Vera Nünning, “The Affective Value of Fiction Presenting and Evoking Emotions,” Writing Emotions: Theoretical Concepts and Selected Case Studies in Literature, eds Ingeborg Jandl et al (Bielefeld: transcript, 2017), 29-54, Thomas Anz, “Emotional Turn? Beobachtungen zur Gefühlsforschung,” literaturkritik.de 12 (2006); Thomas Anz, “Kulturtechniken der Emotionalisierung: Beobachtungen, Reflexionen und Vorschläge zur literaturwissenschaftlichen Gefühlsforschung,” Im Rücken der Kulturen, eds Karl Eibl/ Katja Mellmann/ Rüdiger Zymner (Paderborn: Mentis, 2007), 207-239, Martin von Koppenfels,/ Cornelia Zumbusch, eds , Handbuch Literatur Emotionen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), Simone Winko, Kodierte Gefühle: Zu einer Poetik der Emotionen in lyrischen und poetologischen Texten um 1900 (Berlin: Schmidt, 2003), Susanne Knaller, Die Realität der Kunst: Programme und Theorien zu Literatur, Kunst und Fotografie seit 1700 (Paderborn: Fink, 2015), 226-235, Susanne Knaller/ Rita Rieger, eds , Ästhetische Emotion: Formen und Figurationen zur Zeit des Umbruchs der Medien und Gattungen (1880-1939) (Heidelberg: Winter, 2016), Susanne Knaller, “Emotions and the Process of Writing,” Writing Emotions, eds Ingeborg Jandl et al (Bielefeld: transcript, 2017), 17-28 134 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 munications and practices. This relationship is situated in a field of tension between the systemic necessity of norms, on the one hand, and individual legal and non-legal actions and situations, on the other This concurrence between the law’s mandatory normativity and the contingent processuality of single legal actions constitutes a highly productive aspect for modernt literature It reflects the tensions within a modern society grounded in generally approved norms, on the one hand, and the right of freedom for the individual, on the other Since the 18th century and particularly the 19th century, literature has dealt with this area of conflict and the contingencies of modern reality and society The recourse to legal discourses and legal motives makes it possible for literature to demonstrate the cultural and social characteristics and antinomies of institutions, individuals, and practices In this context emotions are of particular importance for literature They count among the essential, never entirely calculable constants of human action and communication and, at the same time, they are both a part and a determinant of social practices 10 Thus, by representing how emotions and feelings may penetrate and even constitute legal norms and contexts, literature can demonstrate the unavoidability of emotions as well as the fact that law is located in norms as well as in the lifeworld Questions of emotion imply the necessity of considering how the law and its practices are conditioned 11 by a society’s norms, rules, values, and conventions 12 However, issues of emotion not only relate to legal, social, political, and cultural conflicts and practices, but also describe an aesthetic question that literature has always been concerned with: emotions and feelings have been constants of literature (and the arts in general) They are used and become effective on levels of production, text formation, and in reception It can thus be concluded that it is this very set of epistemological, aesthetic, and lifewordly issues that explains the potential of law and emotions for literature At the same time, this confrontation displays the emotional value of literature itself In the following steps these theoretical reflections will be elaborated and supplemented with a brief look at the long turn of the century The second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century constitute a defining and important period up to now for both law and literature. A short methodological proposal of how to deal with the triad of law, literature, and 10 Andreas Reckwitz, “Praktiken und ihre Affekte Zur Affektivität des Sozialen,” Kreativität und soziale Praxis: Studien zur Sozial- und Gesellschaftstheorie (Bielefeld: transcript, 2016), 97-114 11 Christoph Möllers, Die Möglichkeit der Normen: Über eine Praxis jenseits von Moralität und Kausalität (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2015) 12 Vesting, Die Medien des Rechts: Sprache When Law Meets Literature 135 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 emotion, followed by an example of legal practice demonstrating the value of literature, will complete the picture of a complex and highly productive relationship 2 Law, Literature, and Emotion - A Productive Relationship Generally, literature can address the relationship between law and emotion in a discursively productive way while at the same time applying aesthetic concepts of emotion within poetically formed emotion scenarios This becomes apparent when looking at key concepts of the legal discourse considered by literature. One can find the application and discussion of terms like law, rule, norm, proof, evidence, certainty, dispute, justice, fact, truth, decision, case, confession, guilt/ innocence, ruling, conscience - general and not only legally relevant notions that literature ties to concepts of emotion as well as to concrete emotion scenarios An example: The term “justice” describes a condition imperative for the law, if it is to function However, justice can never be fully defined or expressed in words without using language to explain one’s reasoning Drawing on Pascal and Montaigne, Derrida thus speaks of a mystical authority of the law 13 This does not imply a transcendent dimension, but means that, strictly speaking, there is no ultimate meta-level to legitimise justice, [there are] only fictions, rhetorical procedures, or performative speech acts that can legitimise justice Literature takes this circumstance into consideration and demonstrates how and in which forms this authority can take effect Thus, literature also reveals what remains unmentioned, unvoiced, or banned from language: the speechlessness of those who do not understand the language of the law; the silent agreements; the unmentioned pre-texts of a ruling or decision; the covert aporias of all decision making A literary strategy for dealing with this complex status of language within law is the construction of emotion scenarios and the unfolding of their linguistic triggers and outcome Language here does not possess a conclusive or rational power It triggers emotions followed by new emotions At no point are facts, actions, and linguistic signs in full congruence. The participants never find themselves on one common level of knowledge and understanding What literature discloses with its aesthetic procedures is the fact that the law cannot be analysed as a whole; it needs to be broken down into the individual parts of its texts, into the phases in which it operates, into its interstices, 13 Jacques Derrida, “The Force of Law: ‘The Mystical Foundation of Authority’,” Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice, eds Drucilla Cornell/ Michael Rosenfeld/ David Gray Carlson (New York: Routledge, 1992), 11-12 136 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 into its narrative elements 14 In the language of law, speech acts therefore always contain traces of citations, other texts, media, and systems 15 Literature engages in the latter aspects by considering, for instance, that linguistic as well as non-linguistic juridical processes are always embedded within a respective time structure, thus constituting themselves within a narrative framework in the broader sense 16 This holds true for the verdict, the decision, and the grounds for a judgement A case constitutes itself through a reciprocal and nearly unstoppable process of references to the past, to the present of expressions, of stipulation, and to future events Therefore, a legal decision 17 always means a caesura, such as interrupting the chains of evidence or conducting interpretations in support of a judgment The resulting relationship between perpetrators (which parts of their biography can be told? ), crime (what counts as evidence? ), and case (a complex process) with all the ensuing confrontations strongly appeals to literature, also because these legal procedures (accompanied by acts of interrupting and concluding) give rise to manifold potentials for emotion This can be demonstrated with the example of literary case narratives and explains why they are so often multi-perspectival, full of narrative gaps and unexpected turns, and rarely seem to offer closure and a full story Truth in these texts is subjective and contingent Another literary strategy is the montage and combination of factual as well as fictive texts (narration, letters, interviews, judgements, journal articles, psychological estimates, etc ) with commentaries of a narrator acting as a personally involved investigator Literary case studies tend to be reflexive and narrated from a self-observing point of view 18 They are not classifiable (“inclassable”) and disrupt expectations, as Roland Barthes points out, speaking of the genre “fait divers” - the French name for all sorts of exceptional and at the same time bizarre cases reported in popular tabloids 19 Literary case studies combine aleatoric causality and ever-changing coincidences with strong emotional reactions and reflections 14 Ibid , 14 15 Ladeur, “‘Finding our text…’,” 187; Möllers, Die Möglichkeit der Normen, 283 16 Cf Greta Olson, “Narration and Narrative in Legal Discourse,” Living Handbook of Narratology, eds Peter Hühn et al (Hamburg: Hamburg University, 2014) 17 Michael Niehaus, “Die Entscheidung vorbereiten,” Urteilen, Entscheiden, eds Cornelia Vismann/ Thomas Weitin (München: Fink, 2006), 22 18 Nicolas Pethes, Literarische Fallgeschichten: Zur Poetik einer epistemischen Schreibweise (Konstanz: UP, 2016), 15; Émile Brière, “Faits divers, faits littéraires: Le romancier contemporain devant les faits accomplis,” Études littéraires 40 (2009), 157-70, Dominique Viart, “Les ‘Fictions critiques’ dans la littérature contemporaine,” Le goût du roman, ed Matteo Majorano (Bari: Graphis, 2002), 30-46 19 Roland Barthes, “Structure du fait divers,” Essais critiques (Paris: Seuil, 1964), 188-197 When Law Meets Literature 137 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 of the narrator as well as the readers A famous example is Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1966) Not only from a formal but also a historical point of view, case narratives represent an important example of the productive relationship between law and literature and its innovative impulses in modernity After a period of relatively close convergence between legal theories and literature during the 18th century, in Germany, Austria, and France, law and legal scholarship ceased to draw directly on literature 20 One of the reasons for this development is the academic professionalisation of legal scholarship and its stronger institutionalisation 21 , which had already begun in the 18th century However, in the 20th century, literature itself renewed its interest in the law in a way that is different from that of the 18th and early 19th centuries 22 Because of reform movements in criminal law, the new attention to feeling (“Rechtsgefühl”) in the juridical process 23 , the development of criminology as a science, and general interest in public trials reported on by burgeoning mass media, authors, writers, and journalists started to take part in discussions about legal relationships, legal reforms, and legal practices A salient historical event to be mentioned in this context is the legal crisis of the Weimar Republic 24 Karl Kraus’s contribution to Die Fackel can be cited as an example, as can Blaise Cendrars’ concern with legal cases (e g , in L’Or (1925)) or work 20 Rückert, Joachim, “Das ‘gesunde Volksempfinden’ - eine Erbschaft Savignys? ,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Germanistische Abteilung 103 (1986), 199-247 21 Monika Frommel, “Internationale Reformbewegungen zwischen 1880 und 1920,” Erzählte Kriminalität: Zur Typologie und Funktion von narrativen Darstellungen in Strafrechtspflege, Publizistik und Literatur zwischen 1770 und 1920, eds Jörg Schönert/ Konstantin Imm/ Joachim Linder (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1991), 470-472; Uwe Wilhelm, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich und seine Justiz: Justizkritik, politische Strafrechtsprechung, Justizpolitik (Berlin: Duncker Humblot, 2010) 22 Cf Susanne Knaller, “Die Lust am Recht Emotion, Recht und Literatur um 1900,” Ästhetische Emotion: Formen und Figurationen zur Zeit des Umbruchs der Medien und Gattungen (1880-1939), eds Susanne Knaller/ Rita Rieger (Heidelberg: Winter, 2016), 179-197, 183-185 Also Andreas von Arnauld, “Was war, was ist - und was sein soll: Erzählen im juristischen Diskurs,” Wirklichkeitserzählungen: Formen und Funktionen nicht-literarischen Erzählens, eds Christian Klein/ Matías Martínez (Stuttgart/ Weimar: Metzler 2008), 47 23 Cf Sandra Schnädelbach, “The Jurist as Manager of Emotions: German Debates on ‘Rechtsgefühl’ in the Late 19th and early 20th Century as Sites of Negotiating the Juristic Treatment of Emotions,” InterDisciplines Journal of History and Sociology 6 2 (2015), 47-73 24 Daniel Siemens, “Die Vertrauenskrise der Justiz in der Weimarer Republik,” Die Krise der Weimarer Republik: Zur Kritik eines Deutungsmusters, ed Moritz Föllmer (Frankfurt a M : Campus, 2005), 139-163 Cf the topic in general in Ansgar Nünning, “Making Crises and Catastrophes: Metaphors and Narratives Shaping the Cultural Life of Crises and Catastrophes,” The Cultural Life of Catastrophes and Crises: Facts, Forms, Fantasies, eds Carsten Meiner/ Kristin Veel (Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter, 2012), 59-88 138 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 by André Gide (Souvenirs de la cour d’assises [1913]) on how he participated in and documented court cases Texts critical of the justice system appear in novels and magazines, and the role of perpetrator is used productively as writers stylise themselves as perpetrators or let the latter have their say (see Linder 1991: 565) This happens against the historical backdrop of the so-called Pitaval stories which were popular in French and German-speaking countries and served as case studies for lawyers However, some of the new texts also transcended mere case studies and presented themselves as critical, open, linguistically hybrid, and experimental case histories 25 When it comes to where and how crime originates, writers applied concepts from jurisprudence, recognising the relevance of psychological determinants and social circumstances It can be said that there was a radical change in the representation of crime starting around the second half of the 19th century, and that after 1900 paradigms of emotion became an important issue for explaining social issues and legal circumstances In Expressionism, crime is no longer portrayed as deviation but as resulting from society and existential inevitability - being an outsider is stylised This can be illustrated with the series Die Außenseiter der Gesellschaft: Verbrechen der Gegenwart (edited by Rudolf Leonhard (1924/ 25), featuring texts, e g , by Egon Erwin Kisch and Alfred Döblin) and also becomes apparent in the newly emerging French robber novels and novels about youth gangs Beyond a wide array of entertainment novels, Alain-Fournier’s Le grand Meaulnes (1913) may be quoted as a witty literary example What must also be pointed out is the literary deconstruction of highly emotional typologies which were corroborated in legal, scientific, and criminological literature and which portrayed women as predestined criminals - an image against which literature took a stand The criminologists Cesare Lombroso and Erich Wulffen, as well as the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft- Ebing, with his pivotal work Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), are but some of the most influential examples of authors whose writings condemn women as affective, instinctual, and criminal beings Emancipatory and oppositional 25 Harald Neumeyer, “‘Schwarze Seelen’: Rechts-Fall-Geschichten bei Pitaval, Schiller, Niethammer und Feuerbach,” Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 31 1 (2006), 101-132; Michael Niehaus, “Schicksal sein: Giftmischerinnen in Falldarstellungen vom Pitaval bis zum Neuen Pitaval,” Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 31 1 (2006), 133-149; Susanne Düwell/ Nicolas Pethes, eds , Fall - Fallgeschichte - Fallstudie: Theorie und Geschichte einer Wissensform (Frankfurt a M / New York: Campus, 2014); Susanne Knaller, “Mediale Herausforderungen von Literatur und Recht: Der literarische Rechtsfall als Beispiel (Döblin, Capote, Carrère),” Recht im medialen Feld: Aktuelle und historische Konstellationen, eds Susanne Knaller/ Doris Pichler (PhiN, Special Issue 12) (2017), 119-141 When Law Meets Literature 139 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 types of women, legal discrimination, and social hurdles are often put up for discussion in circumstances such as legal cases and associated emotional and psychological behaviour and consequences Based on the common emotional questions in psychology and medicine (which either topologise or are critical of prejudice), literature is interested in highly expressive models of emotion and emotion scenarios This interest is often demonstrated through formally merging narratives, case records, legal texts, newspaper clippings, and scientific texts. Alfred Döblin’s documentary-oriented sketch Die beiden Freundinnen und ihr Giftmord (1924) is a case in point Plotlines addressing the legal discrimination of women and their professional and sexual choices also appear in the works of Mela Hartwig (Das Verbrechen [1927]), Julien Green (Adrienne Mesurat [1927]), and François Mauriac (Thérèse Desqueyroux [1927]) To this day, these interplays between law, literature, and emotion are highly influential and productive as explicit or implicit models for contemporary writers - especially in France, where, in the wake of Émile Zola’s J’accuse (1898) and later Michel Foucault’s Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma soeur et mon frère… Un cas de parricide au XIXe siècle (1973), the tradition of case narratives and documentaries is popular and highly innovative Prominent examples include Emmanuel Carrère’s L’Adversaire (2000) and Pierre Lemaitre’s documentary novel Trois jours et une vie (2016) 3 Methodological Suggestions Let me conclude the formal and historical observations made above with a short methodological outlook From a theoretical and methodological point of view, the philosopher Ronald de Sousa’s concept of ‘paradigm scenarios’ has proved advantageous in investigating the relationship between literature and emotion 26 Paradigm scenarios store, manage, and activate the vocabulary and practices necessary for attributing emotions They enable reactions, associations, and evaluations, and make it possible to define the functions of emotions and feelings as well as to perceive and understand the latter They also bring together what Andreas Reckwitz calls “affective habitus” (schemata) and “affective style” (perceptible patterns of behaviour) 27 26 Ronald de Sousa, The Rationality of Emotion (Cambridge, MA/ London: MIT Press, 1987); Knaller, “Emotions and the Process of Writing ” 27 Andreas Reckwitz, “Affective Spaces: a Praxeological Outlook,” Rethinking History 16 (2012), 241-258, 255 140 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 To properly observe the law-emotion-literature constellation, one needs: 1) to raise the question of which emotion scenarios may generally occur in law and how they are used in literature In the context of the law, emotions and feelings can encompass the following characteristics: They can have a normative and corrective value in the legal context, and they determine judicial reasoning and judgment; they authorise legitimacy and convey legal experience 28 They query the worth and utility - and thus also the justification - of normativity and value systems. Emotions thus operate at the level of legal doctrines, legal norms, institutions, procedures, and the public, as well as in the context of their own environmental systems, which include the arts 29 2) The vocabulary relating to emotions used in legal discourse and practices is important for a closer analysis of literary emotion scenarios in the legal context Literature observes these scenarios, their vocabulary, and their practices - legitimising discourses and the resulting widely relevant, knowledge-steering cultural, economic, and political conditions as well as how those are dealt with 3) Finally, it is relevant that literature’s observations are subject to specific conditions and that literature is also subject to poetological paradigms In literary texts we not only find emotions from legal paradigm scenarios, but also aesthetic models of emotions Literature relates to existing and possible aesthetic (emotion) paradigms The point is thus to develop a “poetics of emotion” 30 which, as is the case with emotional patterns in general, cannot be realised on an individual or specific level alone. Emotions are temporally limited, multi-perspective constellations that concern specific facts. The value of literature consists in its ability to portray these constellations, to put them up for negotiation and to describe them by combining discursive and poetological aspects Applying the above mentioned legal and general terms such as law, rule, and norm as well as respective related terms like proof, evidence, certainty, dispute, jus- 28 Hilge Landweer/ Dirk Koppelberg, “Der Verkannte Zusammenhang von Recht und Emotion,” Recht und Emotion I: Verkannte Zusammenhänge, eds eid (Freiburg: Karl Alber, 2016), 16 29 Dagmar Ellerbrock/ Sylvia Kesper-Biermann, eds , “Between Passion and Senses? Emotional Dimensions of Legal Cultures in Historical Perspective,” InterDisciplines: Journal of History and Sociology 6 2 (2015), 5; Julia J A Shaw/ Hillary J Shaw, “From Fact to Feeling: An Explication of the Mimetic Relation between Law and Emotion,” Liverpool Law Review 35 (2014), 43-64 30 Els Andringa, “Poetics of Emotion in Times of Agony: Letters from Exile, 1933-1940,” Poetics Today 32 1 (2011), 152 When Law Meets Literature 141 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 tice, case, fact, truth, decision, confession, guilt/ innocence, remorse, ruling, and conscience makes it possible to identify legal, scientific, discursive, and emotional paradigm scenarios and to classify them according to the interfaces and frictions revealed through the literary treatment The results can form the starting point for analysing emotion and law scenarios as well as their constitutive practices and discourses Of particular interest are the linguistic, genre-related, and conceptual particularities which occur when terminology and text formations are implicitly or explicitly transferred from legal to literary texts - i e , from non-poetologically-oriented to poetic texts. This refiguring process of discursively and materially charged application might also lay bare the aesthetic potential and as such the non-rational, contingent, and unruly part of law and its practices 4 Conclusion In the context of law and literature considering the question of emotions provides new insights and impulses on several levels On the one hand, taking into account the social, cultural and political impact of emotions displays the psycho-physical, cognitive, and practical foundations of human acting With this, literature relates notions of law, normative texts, and legal acts to their practical procedures and life-worldly consequences On the other hand, the question of emotions functions as a productive interface for theoretical, methodological, and practical confrontations and reciprocal impulses of law and literary studies 31 Historical-systematically current topics and ever controversial notions like justice or complex procedures like decision making can be fruitfully analysed with the help of an emotion-centered scholarly perspective Such a perspective presupposes and at the same time lays bare an open idea of law and language as well as a notion of law beyond strict objectivity and textual norms. Recent examples for a reciprocal influence between law and literature are Pierre Lemaitre’s already mentioned documentary novel Trois jours et une vie (2016), Ian McEwan’s novel The Children’s Act (2014) or Petra Morsbach’s Justizpalast (2017) which are equally interesting for literary and legal scholars alike 31 Susanne Knaller, “Die emotionalen Gründe des Rechts und umgekehrt: Vorschläge für einen interdisziplinären Austausch von Rechts- und Literaturwissenschaft,” Law and Literature In-Between: Contemporary Interand Transdisciplinary Approaches, eds Christian Hiebaum/ Susanne Knaller/ Doris Pichler (Bielefeld: transcript, 2015), 119-132, Carla Faralli et al., eds., “The Harmonies and Conflicts of Law, Reason and Emotion: A Literary-Legal Approach,” Law and Literature. ISLL papers 9 (2015) 142 s usaNNe K Naller 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 I would like to illustrate and conclude these suggestions with an example that combines law, literature, and emotion as a way of legal practice The legal scholar and judge Denis Salas shows how a legal analysis of a constellation of law, language, and emotion can be addressed through aesthetic and literary strategies His examination of linguistic practices, vocabulary, and terminology transcends the idea of a rationally determined competence and control within law and language This approach allows the inclusion of what is not being said, the silences, the unspoken emotion, and the particularity of the language of emotions Salas addresses this openly in his lexicon Les 100 mots de la justice, where the entry for emotion (surprising for a law encyclopaedia) consists not of a definition, but of a story that sums up how law, language, and emotion correlate on all levels and in all their facets - including the non-linguistic, the sensual, physical, and spatial: Let’s observe an audience of penal order. […] It is an audience in the office of the prosecutor in the presence of the lawyer At the end of the interrogation, the prosecutor makes a proposal regarding the degree of punishment All of a sudden, because of a movement, a silent embarrassment, a barely noted vibration in the room, one understands that there is something going on It is the defendant, who, under shock, is incapable of answering Is it the stress, the paralysing effect of the sentencing? He murmurs something confused No articulated sound comes from his mouth The prosecutor is perturbed The lawyer asks for a break and retires with his client A short and important moment. After having returned to the office, the attorney explains the emotion of this man: The probation offers him a chance he did not expect at all, being previously convicted By translating these emotions, the lawyer brings the human being back into the scene, erases the image of the recidivist from the dossier The ‘contextualised’ man (his emotions, his family, his social image) can escape the institutional stigma […] 32 32 My translation “Observons une audience de comparutions sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité […] C’est une audience de cabinet dans le bureau du procureur de la République en présence de l’avocat Au terme de l’interrogatoire, le procureur fait une proposition de peine au prévenu. Soudain, à un mouvement, un étonnement muet, une vibration imperceptible dans l’espace, on devine qu’il passe quelque chose C’est le prévenu qui ne peut répondre sous l’effet d’un choc Est-ce le stress, l’effet paralysant de la comparution? Il marmonne quelque chose confusément Aucun son articulé ne sort de sa bouche Le procureur est troublé L’avocat demande une suspension d’audience et se retire avec son client Moment bref, décisif Au retour dans le bureau, l’avocat explique l’émotion de cet homme: ce sursis lui offre une chance qu’il n’espérait plus alors qu’il a un casier judiciaire chargé Traduisant cette émotion, l’avocat remet en scène l’homme, efface l’image du récidiviste qui est dans le dossier. L’homme ‘contextuel’ (ses émotions, sa famille, son image sociale…) peut échapper au stigmate institutionnel.” Denis Salas, Les 100 mots de la justice (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2011), 48-49 When Law Meets Literature 10.2357/ REAL-2021-0006 143 The example displays that the value of literature can be found in multiple practices. It is visible in fictional as well as in non-fictional texts. 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