"Quema's work is an original and highly sophisticated contribution to the field of law and literature. It is extremely well written, clearly argued, and full of powerful and succinct critical analyses of legal and literary texts." -- Desmond Manderson, College of Law, Australian National University "Power and Legitimacy confidently manipulates intellectually diverse and difficult sources, incorporating a vast canon of critical literature, to make an innovative argument about the nature of law and its relationship with legal subjects. Quema's writing is elegant and sharp." -- David Gurnham, Southampton Law School, University of Southampton

An interdisciplinary analysis of the ways in which symbolic acts create social norms, Power and Legitimacy is an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship on law and literature. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Judith Butler and Pierre Bourdieu, Anne Quéma demonstrates the effect of symbolic violence on the creation of social and political legitimacy.

Examining modern jurisprudence theory, statutory law, and the family within the modern Gothic novel, Quéma shows how the forms and effects of political power transform as one shifts from discourse to discourse. An impressive integration of the scholarship in these three fields, Power and Legitimacy is a thought-provoking analysis of the basis of power and the law.