Beyond Portia: Women, Law, and Literature in the Unites States

This pioneering anthology presents an interdisciplinary collage of women's experiences with the law by mixing creative and analytical writings in law and literature. Beyond Portia opens with grounding essays in both literary and legal theory, and offers two collections of essays, stories, and poems that focus in turn on law and literature on families, and law and literature on abuse of women. Drawing on the idea that literature by women can offer material richer than the typical case fact pattern used in traditional legal training, the editors show that both literature and literary methods of reading can help articulate otherwise unspoken premises in legal decision-making, bringing them into the open for examination.