Comparative Constitutional Epics

Law and Literature, Vol. 21, No. 1, p. 106, 2009

Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2009-04

24 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2009 Last revised: 6 Apr 2009

See all articles by Penelope J. Pether

Penelope J. Pether

Villanova University School of Law (Deceased)

Date Written: March 12, 2009

Abstract

This essay takes up Robert Cover's account, in Nomos and Narrative of Constitutional Epics. Ranging across legal and literary texts including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Malouf's An Imaginary Life, the Canadian Arar Commission Report, and Bringing Them Home, the Report of the Australian Human Rights and Opportunity Commission's National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, it concludes that what comparative study of Constitutions and their Epics might yield are brutal truths and the judgements of history, but also insights into how we might make of that unpromising material a nomos and a narrative of redemptive Constitutionalism.

Keywords: Robert Cover, Nomos and Narrative, discursive construction of national identity, Constitutional narratives, Constitutional Epics, redemptive constitutionalism

Suggested Citation

Pether, Penelope, Comparative Constitutional Epics (March 12, 2009). Law and Literature, Vol. 21, No. 1, p. 106, 2009, Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2009-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1358553

Penelope Pether (Contact Author)

Villanova University School of Law (Deceased)

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