Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/4164
Title: Narrative and Rhetoric in Law
Authors: Nagel, Meira
Keywords: Narration (Rhetoric)
Rhetoric.
Communication in law.
Forensic oratory.
Issue Date: Apr-2016
Publisher: Stern College for Women
Abstract: Telling stories has been an innate human drive since the beginning—since Adam relayed to Eve that G-d had told him not to eat from the tree of knowledge1 . Walter Fisher, a 20th century philosopher, proposed that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling, of narrative— that “humans are essentially storytellers2 .” We see stories being told in all aspects of the human experience: from teachers in the classroom describing the Civil War to a millennial anxiously texting her friend the latest boy drama. Storytelling, in fact, is so much a part of who we are and what we do as humans that it is often hard to pinpoint what exactly it means to be telling a story. One area in which it is especially crucial to analyze the power of a complex narrative is that of a legal battle. In this arena, the details and nuance of a story can drastically alter the trajectory of a person’s life. Perhaps this is nowhere more important than in a custody case. We need only recall the oldest recorded case to realize the significance of narrative and the many shades of gray a custody case contains:
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URI: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12202/4164
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Appears in Collections:S. Daniel Abraham Honors Student Theses

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