A New Edition of Frankenstein

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Charles Robinson, Professor of English at the University of Delaware, has prepared an edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, stripped of Percy Shelley's improvements. We can now see what Mary Shelley actually wrote, and compare it to what we've been reading all these years. The two Shelleys' collaboration, says Robinson, took him years to take apart. Such is the result of the marriage of two minds.

Tony Hillerman, Author of Mysteries Featuring Native American Sleuths, Dies

Tony Hillerman, the author of numerous bestselling mysteries featuring Navajo sleuths Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, has died of pulmonary failure. Here's more from the International Herald Tribune.

Mr. Hillerman's first Joe Leaphorn novel was The Blessing Way. For more about Mr. Hillerman's writing, check out the following websites (not a comprehensive list)

Tony Hillerman at mysterynet.com
Tony Hillerman at dancingbadger.com
Susan Mueller's Tony Hillerman Page

For more about Mr. Hillerman's work, try

Balassi, William Victor and John F. Crawford, This Is About Vision: Interviews With Southwestern Writers (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990).

Balibar, Renee, Philosophies du roman policier (Fontenay aux Roses: E.N.S., 1995).

Bargainnier, Earl F., Cops and Constables: American and British Fictional Policemen (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1986).

Bauer, Joyce M., The West Is Not God’s New Garden of Paradise: Demythologizing the American West in the Hardboiled Detective Fiction of Tony Hillerman, Bernard Schopen, and James Crumley (Dissertation, University of Nevada, Reno, 1998).

Carter, Catherine Anne, A Critical Analysis of the Detective Fiction of Tony Hillerman (Master’s thesis, Radford University, 1993).

Coale, Samuel, The Mystery of Mysteries: Cultural Differences and Designs (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000).

Erisman, Fred, Tony Hillerman (Boise: Boise State University Press, 1989).

Fischer-Hornung, Dorothea, and Monika Mueller, Sleuthing Ethnicity: The Detective in Multiethnic Crime Fiction (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003).

Freese, Peter, The Ethnic Detective: Chester Himes, Harry Kemelman, Tony Hillerman (Essen: Verlag Die Blaue Eule, 1993).

Glassman, Steve, and Maurice O’Sullivan, Crime Fiction and Film in the Southwest: Bad Boys and Bad Girls of the Badlands (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2001).

Hamm, Ron, The Navajo Detective Novels of Tony Hillerman: A Bridge Between Two Cultures (Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University, 1989).

Heiss, Gwen Garnsey, Walking in Beauty: Tony Hillerman’s Indian Detective Fiction (Master’s thesis, San Diego State University, 1994).

Heite, Donna, Tony Hillerman: Mystery Novelist With a Southwestern Slant (Master’s thesis, Western New Mexico University, 1991).

Herbert, Rosemary, The Fatal Art of Entertainment: Interviews With Mystery Writers (NY: G.K. Hall, 1994).

Kaminsky, Stuart M., Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers (Cohasset, MA: Hot House Press, 2005).

Kelleghan, Fiona, 100 Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction (Pasadena: Salem Press, 2001).

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers (Westport, CT: Greenwood Electronic Media, 2001--).

Quirk, Tom, Nothing Abstract: Investigations in the American Literary Imagination (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001).

Reilly, John M., Tony Hillerman: A Critical Companion (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996).

Six, Beverly G., Slaying the Monsters: Native American Spirituality in the Works of Tony Hillerman (Dissertation, Texas Tech University, 1998).

Timmons, Janice, The Elevation Theme and Disjoint Themes in the Detective Fiction of Tony Hillerman (Master’s thesis, California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1996).

Winks, Robin W., Colloquium On Crime: Eleven Renowned Mystery Writers Discuss Their Work (NY: Scribner, 1986).

I'll be mentioning some articles about Mr. Hillerman's work in a future post.

Anti-Semitism and Religion in Kafka

Arnold Heidsieck, University of Southern California, has published "On Judaism, Christianity, Anti-Semitism in Kafka's the Castle, His Letters and Diaries." Here is the abstract.

In his writings Kafka scrutinized, encouraged by his friend Max Brod, the early 20th-century German-speaking disputes on the ancient Jewish origins of Christianity and attempted an explication of the Christian-Germanic ideology of anti-Semitism.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

You Don't Tread On Superman's Cape

From EvidenceProfBlog: Colin Miller writes cleverly and authoritatively about claims brought against Superman by a victim he rescues in an episode of the show Lois and Clark. So what does this tell us about Good Samaritan laws?

Short Law Review Article, Long Memory?

Erik M. Jensen, Case Western Reserve School of Law, has published "The Intellectual History of 'The Shortest Article in Law Review History'," in volume 59 of the Case Western Reserve Law Review. Here is the abstract.

"The Shortest Article in Law Review History" appeared in 2000 to a mixture of acclaim ("Brilliant!"), horror ("Don't you have anything better not to do?"), and indifference ("Huh?"). Since then, many have asked how the article came into being and what its effect on legal scholarship has been. (Well, the author's mother and sister did once raise those questions, or one of them anyway.) This new article provides readers with just about everything needed to understand a twenty-first century development in the life of the mind.

Download the paper from SSRN here.
And I remember Professor Jensen when he was writing (extensively) about buffalo law....

A Look at Native American Law Through a Michigan Novelist's Eyes

Matthew L. M. Fletcher, Michigan State University College of Law, has published "Laughing Whitefish: A Tale of Justice and Anishinaabe Custom," as MSU Legal Studies Research Paper 06-16. Here is the abstract.

Laughing Whitefish, a novel by Robert Traver, the pen name of former Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker, is the fictionalized story of a case that reached the Michigan Supreme Court three times, culminating in Kobogum v. Jackson Iron Co., 43 N.W. 602 (Mich. 1889). The petitioner, Charlotte Kobogum, an Ojibwe Indian from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, brought suit to recover under a note issued to her father, Marji Gesick, by the mining company in the 1840s. The company had promised a share in the company because he had led them to one of the largest iron ore deposits in the country, the famed Jackson Mine. Despite the company's defense that Mr. Gesick was a polygamist and therefore Ms. Kobogum could not be his legitimate heir, the Michigan Supreme Court held that state courts had no right to interfere with internal, domestic relations of reservation Indians, and upheld the claim. Justice Voelker's tale is a powerful defense of the decision, and offers insights into why state courts should recognize the judgments of tribal courts even today.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

John Voelker (Robert Traver) is also the author of Anatomy of a Murder, filmed with Jimmy Stewart, Ben Gazzara, and Lee Remick.

Fan Fiction, Harry Potter, and Copyright Law

Aaron Schwabach, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, has published "The Harry Potter Lexicon and the World of Fandom: Fan Fiction, Outsider Works, and Copyright," has TJSL Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1274293. Here is the abstract.

Fan fiction, long a nearly invisible form of outsider art, has grown exponentially in volume and legal importance in the past decade. Because of its nature, authorship, and underground status, fan fiction stands at an intersection of issues of property, sexuality, and gender. This article examines three disputes over fan writings, concluding with the recent dispute between J.K. Rowling and Steven Vander Ark over the Harry Potter Lexicon, which Rowling once praised and more recently succeeded in suppressing. The article builds on and adds to the emerging body of scholarship on fan fiction, concluding that much fan fiction is fair use under 17 U.S.C. section 107. But much is not, as well.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

Kafka's POV

Arnold Heidsieck, University of Southern California, has published "Kafka's Narrative Innovation and Ethical Intuitions." Here is the abstract.

In his fictions Kafka develops an innovative narrative POV (uni-polar 'self-narration') and a penetrating (near-psychoanalytic) scrutiny of motives. Additionally, throughout his fictions and his non-fiction he works out a contextually rich individualist ethics.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

New Book on Shakespeare and the Law

Hart Publishing is offering a new title called Shakespeare and the Law, edited by Paul Raffield and Gary Watt. It collects the proceedings of a July 2007 conference held at the University of Warwick School of Law. Here's further information provided by the publisher.

In July 2007, the School of Law at the University of Warwick hosted an international conference on 'Shakespeare and the Law'. This was a truly interdisciplinary event, which included contributions from eminent speakers in the fields of English, history, theatre and law. The intention was to provide a congenial forum for the exploration, dissemination and discussion of Shakespeare's evident fascination with and knowledge of law, and its manifestation in his works.



The papers included in this volume reflect the diverse academic interests of participants at the conference. The eclectic themes of the edited collection range from analyses of the juristic content of specific plays, as in 'Consideration, Contract and the End of The Comedy of Errors', 'Judging Isabella: Justice, Care and Relationships in Measure for Measure', 'Law and its Subversion in Romeo and Juliet', 'Inheritance in the Legal and Ideological Debate of Shakespeare's King Lear' and 'The Law of Dramatic Properties in The Merchant of Venice', to more general explorations of Shakespearean jurisprudence, including 'Shakespeare and Specific Performance', 'Shakespeare and the Marriage Contract', 'The Tragedy of Law in Shakespearean Romance' and 'Punishment Theory in the Renaissance: the Law and the Drama'.



Paul Raffield is an Associate Professor in Law at Warwick University. Gary Watt is Reader and Associate Professor in Law at Warwick University.



Aug 08 312pp Pbk 9781841138251 £30 / €45 / US$63 / CDN$67.50

Discount Price: £24 / €36 / US$50 / CDN$54 See further details

Contents

Foreword (Carol Chillington Rutter)

Introduction (Paul Raffield and Gary Watt)



I. Shakespeare, Money and the Law of Contract

1. Mark Fortier, ‘Shakespeare and Specific Performance’

2. Andrew Zurcher, ‘Consideration, Contract and the End of The Comedy of Errors’



II. Shakespeare, Women and the Law

3. Jonathan Bate, ‘The Bawdy Court’

4. Germaine Greer, ‘Shakespeare and the Marriage Contract’

5. Erika Rackley, ‘Judging Isabella: Justice, Care and Relationships in Measure for Measure’



III. Shakespeare and the Law of Love

6. Bradin Cormack, ‘Shakespeare Possessed: Legal Affect and the Time of Holding’

7. Katrin Trüstedt, ‘The Tragedy of Law in Shakespearean Romance’

8. Daniella Carpi, ‘Law and its Subversion in Romeo and Juliet’



IV. Justice and the Royal Prerogative

9. Carolyn Sale, ‘The King is a Thing’: the King’s Prerogative and the Treasure of the Realm in Plowden’s Report of the Case of Mines and Shakespeare’s Hamlet’

10. Giuseppina Restivo, ‘Inheritance in the Legal and Ideological Debate of Shakespeare’s King Lear’



V. Violence, the State and the Citizen

11. Harry Keyishian, ‘Punishment Theory in the Renaissance: the Law and the Drama’

12. Ian Ward, ‘Terrorists and Equivocators’

13. Paul Raffield, ‘Terras Astraea reliquit’: Titus Andronicus and the Loss of Justice’

14. Christian Biet, ‘Titus Andronicus vs Le More Cruel and Les Portugais Infortunés: Humiliation, Punishment and Violence in the Shakespearean and French Theatre of the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century’



VI. The Merchant of Venice and the Infinite Meanings of ‘Law’

15. Gary Watt, ‘The Law of Dramatic Properties in The Merchant of Venice’

16. Istvan Pogany, ‘Shylock in Transylvania: Anti-Semitism and the Law in East Central Europe’

17. Anton Schütz, ‘Shylock as a Politician’

18. Richard H. Weisberg, ‘The Concept and Performance of ‘The Code’ in The Merchant of Venice’

The publisher notes that readers can obtain a 20 percent discount by quoting the reference "SHAKESPEARE" in the special instructions field. See the webpage here.