LAW & LITERATURE WORKSHOP SERIES 2008-2009

presents

PROFESSOR GREGG CRANE
University of Michigan Department of English

CONFRONTING MORAL DILEMMAS IN A SKEPTICAL MOMENT:
LITERARY REALISM, LEGAL REALISM, AND PRAGMATISM

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
12:30 - 2:00
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Solarium (room FA2)
84 Queen's Park
Toronto

Gregg Crane's paper, "Confronting Moral Dilemmas in a Skeptical Moment: Literary Realism, Legal Realism, and Pragmatism," will examine how, from Huckleberry Finn to To Kill a Mockingbird, a hallmark of realist fiction is its depiction of moral deliberation.  In such moments, fictional protagonists grapple with questions that are solved neither by religious faith nor by adherence to definite social norms or legal rules.  Instead, the dilemma plunges the novel's protagonist (and the readers) into dense and complex web of facts and norms.  Crane's paper will analyze and compare examples of this reasoning process in realist novels (Twain and Harper Lee) jurisprudence (Louis Brandeis and Karl Llewellyn), and pragmatist philosophy (William James).  The similarities in reasoning in these literary, legal,and philosophical examples are produced by a certain strain of skepticism.  Doubting the certainties of religion and positivistic science, the realist or pragmataist strain of fiction, law, and philosophy attempts to derive meaning and value from the "thickness of passing moments" (William James).

A light lunch will be provided.

For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.