Living speech : resisting the empire of force / James Boyd White.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, James Boyd, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--Language.

Law.

Judgments--United States--Language.

Judgments.

Violence in literature.

Violence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (251 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Resisting the empire of force

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Language is our key to imagining the world, others, and ourselves. Yet sometimes our ways of talking dehumanize others and trivialize human experience. In war other people are imagined as enemies to be killed. The language of race objectifies those it touches, and propaganda disables democracy. Advertising reduces us to consumers, and clichés destroy the life of the imagination. How are we to assert our humanity and that of others against the forces in the culture and in our own minds that would deny it? What kind of speech should the First Amendment protect? How should judges and justices themselves speak? These questions animate James Boyd White's Living Speech, a profound examination of the ethics of human expression--in the law and in the rest of life. Drawing on examples from an unusual range of sources--judicial opinions, children's essays, literature, politics, and the speech-out-of-silence of Quaker worship--White offers a fascinating analysis of the force of our languages. Reminding us that every moment of speech is an occasion for gaining control of what we say and who we are, he shows us that we must practice the art of resisting the forces of inhumanity built into our habits of speech and thought if we are to become more capable of love and justice--in both law and life.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction. The Empire of Force and the World of Words

Chapter One. Speech in the Empire

Chapter Two. Living Speech and the Mind Behind It

Chapter Three. The Desire for Meaning

Chapter Four. Writing That Calls the Reader to Life-or Death

Chapter Five. Human Dignity and the Claim of Meaning

Chapter Six. Silence, Belief, and the Right to Speak

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612086861

9781282086869

1282086863

9781400827534

1400827531

OCLC:

505114998