Outlaws and Spies
Legal Exclusion in Law and Literature
Examines the role of literature in representing and critiquing the exclusion from law as an enduring tactic of state power
- Reads outlaw literature and espionage literature together
- Shows how these genres represent and critique the longstanding use of legal exclusion as a means of supporting state power
- Discusses texts ranging from the medieval Robin Hood ballads, Shakespeare’s history plays and versions of the Ned Kelly story to contemporary writing by John le Carré, Don DeLillo, Ciaran Carson and William Gibson
Outlaws are often viewed as historical figures of popular resistance, but there is another side to legal exclusion. In offering readings from two bodies of literature not normally read together – the literature of outlawry and the literature of espionage – this book shows that a substantial body of writing within these genres serves an important purpose in representing and critiquing the longstanding use of legal exclusion as a means of supporting state power.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
- Outside the Law in the Middle Ages
- Sovereign Outlaws: Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy
- The Endurance of Exclusion: Versions of Ned Kelly
- ‘We’re not policemen’: Espionage and Law in John le Carré
- ‘All plots tend to move deathward’: Plots and Consequences in Don DeLillo
- Unanswered Questions: Ciaran Carson
- Contesting the Virtual: William Gibson
Conclusion
BibliographyIndex
Outlaws and Spies will be of interest to those who study the history of nation states and the relationship between governments and their peoples, in both the real and imagined worlds … McCarthy's work is timely, as we continue to live in an era of growing uncertainty regarding the delineation between state power, particularly concerning covert surveillance and propaganda, and the basic human rights of individual autonomy and protection of the law.
