'Words, Words, Just Words': Law, Language, and Magic in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell Trilogy

23 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2021

See all articles by David Kenny

David Kenny

Trinity College (Dublin) - School of Law

Date Written: October 14, 2021

Abstract

In this paper, presented at a conference hosted by the Huntington Library in October 2021, I explore the idea that law is rhetoric using a comparison of law and magic, examined through Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell Trilogy. The books offer a hugely insightful commentary on how these two practices use language to its utmost extreme, showing language to be at once supremely powerful and yet also barely there. I think they can help us see law's magic, and how it really works to order our social lives.

Keywords: Wolf Hall, law and language, law and literature, law as rhetoric, Thomas Cromwell, Hilary Mantel

Suggested Citation

Kenny, David, 'Words, Words, Just Words': Law, Language, and Magic in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell Trilogy (October 14, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3942045 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3942045

David Kenny (Contact Author)

Trinity College (Dublin) - School of Law ( email )

College Green
Dublin 2
Ireland

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