About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

3 L. & Critique 3 (1992)

handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq3 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Critique Vol. III no.1 [1992] SPECTACULAR EVIDENCE DISCOURSES OF SUBJECTIVITY IN THE TRIAL OF JOHN HINCKLEY by ROSANNE KENNEDY' In the form of the logic of the image or the spectacle of the simulacrum, everything has become 'cultural' in some sense. Fredric Jameson1 Suppose, as theorists of postmodernism such as Jameson claim, everything has become cultural in some sense. I take this claim to signal, among other things, the transformation of society by elec- tronic technologies, particularly television and cinema, and the emergence of a new cultural logic. What implications follow for the practice of law, and for law's self-representation, when the real be- comes the cinematic?2 In the essay that follows, I approach this question through the analysis of a case which exemplifies certain features of the cultural logic of postmodernism: long before the trial began, the case entered the media aura and became a spectacle, the defendant, obsessed with the film Taxi Driver, dreamed of becoming a media image, and the defense used the film in evidence to estab- lish the defendant's insanity. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley, the son of a wealthy Denver oil family, attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Al- * Women's Studies, Australian National University. 1 F. Jameson, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, in Postmodernism Or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991). 2 Ethan Katsh addresses some of these questions in his pathbreaking study, The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989). He does not, however, situate his study within the context of theories of postmodernism.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most