Beyond Forensic Poetry: Lyric and Legal Languages in Contemporary Poems

In the field of Law and Literature studies, contributions on poetry are rare. This article focuses on a selection of contemporary poetic works: Cornelius Eady’s A Brutal Imagination (2001), Frédéric Boyer’s Le Goût du suicide lent (1999), Maurizio Cucchi’s Il disperso (1976) and Corrado Benigni’s Tribunale della mente (2012). Their lyrical shaping of law establishes a difference from the model of “forensic” poetry that can be found in Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony (1978–1979). Through them, this contribution shows how it is possible to challenge a reflection on the language of lyric poetry and that of law at the same time, if we interpret the lyric poetry as a non-narrative discourse.