Law is a part of culture. There are deep connections between legal procedures for resolving disputes, the kinds of harms that a court will recognize and the remedies it will provide, and the rules that govern the admission and evaluation of evidence, for example, and the ways that a culture imagines the forms of life it includes and the techniques for representing them. Law and literature have much in common, too, as rhetorical activities based on narrative.  Both attempt to shape reality by using language to persuade the reader or listener. This program is dedicated to exploring the relations between law and literature as a conversation in which both aspects of a larger culture have an ongoing and dynamic influence on each other.