The Image of Defendants as Protagonists of Czech Court Stories
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Legal culture in sense of ‘ideas, values, opinions, and attitudes of some population with regard to law and legal systems’ (Friedman, 1975) may be reflected in various sources. During the First Czechoslovak Republic many readers sought in newspapers a section called the Courtroom. These columns contained stories on the border of journalism and belles-lettres, drawing on themes from real contemporary court proceedings. The main characters of these court stories usually come from minor classes (housemaids, bourgeois etc.). Thus, they do not follow the “prototype” of a person that law was counting with, nor are they common heroes or villains of topical literature. Nevertheless, many writers were drawing on their stories and giving them the floor in this genre. The defendant is generally an individual who does not quite fit within legal framework and the stories intend to enthral the readers by uniqueness and social exclusion of these characters (or narrators at least show them in such spotlight). Submitted contribution aims to describe how the court stories presented the protagonists as a parallel of a narrative approach towards Frankenstein’s monster (and even other characters from the novel) who as well experienced misunderstanding, conviction of being different and not befitting anywhere. Based on presumed fascination and pop cultural aspect of the stories, I will examine how they could influence the public opinion on these protagonists as marginalized group of people. |
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