Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life

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Beacon Press, 1995 - Literary Criticism - 143 pages
Public discourse has become increasingly vitriolic and punitive toward those who don't seem to fit America's "mainstream." Relying excessively on stereotypes and models of human behavior based on economic self-interest, we too often fail - in public policy-making, legislation, and judicial reasoning - to see one another as fully human. In Poetic Justice, one of our most prominent philosophers and public intellectuals explores how literature can contribute to a more just society. As readers of literature, Nussbaum argues, we may glimpse the interior experiences of other people. Above all, reading asks us to imagine the value of their lives

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About the author (1995)

Martha C. Nussbaum, author of The Fragility of Goodness, Love's Knowledge, and The Therapy of Desire, is professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago.

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