Conditions of Freedom

Law and literature are both essentially structured by forms, yet the relation between form and freedom is habitually framed as a binary between constraint and emancipation. Although debates on legal formalism, normativity, and aesthetic autonomy abound in the respective fields, a sustained interdisciplinary account of form as a constitutive condition of freedom remains underdeveloped. This volume intervenes by examining how legal and literary forms organize recognition, authority, personhood, gender, space, and responsibility across shifting historical contexts. Drawing on legal theory, literary studies, and critical humanities, the contributions range from early modern drama and modernist poetics to abolitionist thought, enclosure, refugee narratives, and contemporary autofiction. Reconceiving formalism as a dynamic and contested field in which freedom is produced, negotiated, and precariously sustained, the collection offers new theoretical perspectives for scholars in law and literature, legal theory, cultural studies, and the critical humanities.