Dear all,
next week we are going to have a look at the relation between law and architecture in France and in Italy, with particular focus on the 19th century. The last class will be dedicated to Orson Welles' "The Trial" (1962), based on the famous and homonymous novel by Franz Kafka. The Italian Court of Cassation was, in fact, one of the sets of this controversial movie.
Outline:
TEMPLES OF JUSTICE:
France, Italy and...Kafka
1st class
Paris: The "Palais de Justice"
2nd class
Rome: The "Palazzaccio"
3rd class
Kafka, Welles and the Italian Court of Cassation
Readings:
Terry Rossi Kirk, The Politicization of the Landscape of Roma Capitale and the Symbolic Role of the Palazzo di Giustizia, in "Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée", 109.1 (2006), pp. 89-114.
Dennis E. Curtis, Judith Resnik, Images of Justice, in "Yale Law Journal" 96 (1986-1987), pp. 1727-1772.
Martha S. Robinson, The Law of the State in Kafka's The Trial, in "ALSA Forum" 6.2 (1982), pp 127-148.
Diapositive 1
next week we are going to have a look at the relation between law and architecture in France and in Italy, with particular focus on the 19th century. The last class will be dedicated to Orson Welles' "The Trial" (1962), based on the famous and homonymous novel by Franz Kafka. The Italian Court of Cassation was, in fact, one of the sets of this controversial movie.
Outline:
TEMPLES OF JUSTICE:
France, Italy and...Kafka
1st class
Paris: The "Palais de Justice"
2nd class
Rome: The "Palazzaccio"
3rd class
Kafka, Welles and the Italian Court of Cassation
Readings:
Terry Rossi Kirk, The Politicization of the Landscape of Roma Capitale and the Symbolic Role of the Palazzo di Giustizia, in "Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome: Italie et Méditerranée", 109.1 (2006), pp. 89-114.
Dennis E. Curtis, Judith Resnik, Images of Justice, in "Yale Law Journal" 96 (1986-1987), pp. 1727-1772.
Martha S. Robinson, The Law of the State in Kafka's The Trial, in "ALSA Forum" 6.2 (1982), pp 127-148.
l
Hi everybody!
RispondiEliminaI have a proposal about a theatrical performance for this weekend.
It is a play performed by Giobbe Covatta in Brancaccio theatre which is entitled “ 30”.
This is the number of the articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris.
You probably know that Covatta is an important Amref testimonial, he’s been helping Africa for years and he use the money he earns with his performances to stay there helping concretely who is in needs.
In this play he will talk about these articles and the related rights ironically, as he always do, and he will show us the gap between the written laws and the practical situation.
I am going on Saturday 24th with some friends, I’ll be happy if some of you will join us, but you can go whenever you want from today, you can find reduced tickets in our “Biglietteria Universitaria”.
I put the link:
http://www.teatrobrancaccio.it/content/view/184/
See you later!
Hi guys,
RispondiEliminaI enjoyed very much today’s lesson and I’ve found an association that organizes a guided tour inside our Palazzaccio. It costs 10E and takes almost one hour, the guide that will explain us the history of the building from an architectural point of view. We can choose a day, we can go at anytime and the tour lasts almost one hour.
We can contact Francesca Lutri, that is the one to whom I’ve just talked, and propose her some dates and times, so she will ask for the authorization to the Palace.
For further information you can surf on the web site below:
http://nuke.ideandoroma.com/ProgrammaGenerale/VisitaalPalazzodiGiustiziaPalazzaccio/tabid/61/Default.aspx
For me it would be easier on Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s afternoons or on Saturday.
Let me know if you are interested in going.
See you tomorrow!
Hi! i would be interested, but i can only on thursday and friday afternoons (after the course), because the rest of the week i have classes (unfortunately!). Obviously for saturday there is no problem..
RispondiEliminaAlessia Guaitoli
Wow! Thank you so much! Of course I am interested. On Mondays I can't but the other days are ok. Saturday the 29th I should finish the visit before 18:00. Let me know what you decide. Ah! I will go to the theatre next Saturday.
RispondiEliminaSee you
Hi,
RispondiEliminaI am not sure about the theatre as I don't think I will understand it, but the guided tour sounds nice!
After the lesson yesterday I looked at the Supreme Court in the UK which has now replaced the House of Lords as the highest court. They have used a building from the early 1900’s in a neo-gothic style and renovated it to house the court. In the library there are engravings most of which refer to justice, such as 'The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth' – Cicero or 'Justice is truth in action' - Disraeli. I think this shows how justice is still a key feature of courts as much now as it was 100 years ago. However, the outside of the building has carved figures of the spirits of architecture, literature, government, sculpture, music, truth, law, seafaring, wisdom and education, but there is not one of justice as is seen in the Palais de Justice in Paris.
Also, just as something to think about, on the outside of the building of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, amongst other carvings, are carvings of a cat and dog which represents the litigants fighting.
Sarah Harmsworth
Hi! Well, I've just talked to one organizer of the association and I’ve given these dates: 30th of April 14th and 15th of May because I am already busy on the 7th and the 8th . I think it would be better to go there before the end of the course because probably many of us will be studying for the exams, but if you prefer to go later just tell me and I’ll change the program. The organizer of the guided tour will let me know in a few days when we are authorized to go, I’ve told her that we will be almost 15/20, but I have to tell her the right number as soon as possible, so please let me know.
RispondiEliminaI have one more proposal, the last for today I swear! Would you like to visit Montecitorio, the Parliament?
Even if you want to go on your own you can go every first Sunday, it will be free, but I don’t know if it is a guided tour, I can ask more information if you want.
To dr Gialdroni: I am happy that you are joining us, our sits are in the 15th line from 1st to 7th … perhaps the seller made a mistake and jumped the 6th , You can by that one or another one near if You like.
See you tomorrow then!
Hi everybody!!
RispondiEliminaI think that the 30th of April it's the best date to go to the Palazzaccio, as you said ...and I think it's a very interesting idea!!
See you tomorrow
Best
Anna Leonetti
ok,cool..unfortunely i won't be able to come on april 30th because i have to go up to northern italy for a sailing meeting..perhaps it's probably better for you all thou im not coming,so you can get in without any problems:)!!
RispondiEliminaso,seriously,i liked the lesson today and there are a few things i wanna underline.
First of all reading the "Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome" I really appreciated Zanardelli's aim:Zanardelli sought to defend the State's civil authority against supposed abuses of the clergy's moralizing influence by curbing political promulgation from the pulpit.It's pretty obvious that a new State as the Italian Kingdom wanted to demonstrate to the Church it was able to rule by itself.
Obviously it doesnt mean Church couldnt exist anymore,because Zanardelli followed Cavour's principle:"Libera Chiesa in libero Stato" but in this way he justified the imposition of the Stato di Diritto over the Catholic Church.
A clearance was planned since 1873 to connect the site to the city center,and was an integral featureof the Palace of Justice competition site plan.Big clearances were done during the first period of the Italian Kingdom in Rome,and as the prof.Gialdroni said today in class,even Mussolini was obsessed with this idea of city-connections.Well,obviously huge parts of Roman ruins got lost or destroyed,a big part of our glorious artistical past was basically ignorated and killed,if you can use kill as a verb related to things,but still those clearances were helpful for the Roman urbanistic organization.They could do it in a better way maybe,but I don't think it was a mistake.
Calderini,the architect that won the competition for the Palace of Justice,said:"..incuta stupore ai riguardanti e li costringa ad esclamare che questo è il monumetno più grandioso che oggi esista nel mondo".Its clear that the architect wanted to demostrate the gloriousness and righteousness of the State as a civic power making the building as monumental and related to ancient values aas possible.
The Palace of Justice lifts an emphatically horizontal profile in roman skyline in marked contrast to the dominant curvatures of churches' domes.
One of the main things about the Palace of Justice project is that it was divided on three floors:The ground floor for most populous divisions,the piano nobile(2nd floor)reserved for the high courts and on the top floor the local civil tribunes with offices and archives distributed around the perimeter.this division in floors represent the importance the architect and the State gave to each kind of Justice and court;it just shocjed me that civil tribunes'offices and archives were on the top floor,the one with the best view that should represent the most powerful ones.
last but not the least, i wanna talk about the upper-most cornice of the building that was originally designed with lions as brackets.Many figures of lions had be planned for the building,many more than appear in the final version,but the imagery,perhaps too autocratic,was altered in 1896 to figures of kneeling bulls,yoked with laden garlands.The image of subjugation overrides any association of teh animal to other uses in papal heraldry.So again on the building we find deep connections to the Church and her lost power.
can't wait to watch the movie tomorrow,have all a good night.
senza alcuna cordialità(ahahah..that letter was awesome)
im sorry..obviously on the last line i made a grammathical mistake..Church its not feminine so the use of "her"is not right.I should have used its.
RispondiEliminaerrata corrige.See you tomorrow.
Hi!
RispondiEliminaI think the guided tour through the court of cassation is a great idea! The 30th of april will be oke for me, but the last week during the lecture will also be fine. The lessons these week were very interesting and I liked the lecture about the palazzacio in particular, because we can see it here in Rome (and probably will visit it within a few weeks). Just like Sarah, I looked at the building of the 'gerechtshof' (palice of justice in the Northern part of the Netherlands in my home city Leeuwarden) and I discovered a few things. It's built in 1851 in a neo-classicism style with pillars, steps and a gable. However, there are no images of justice as in Paris, but only two lions as a symbol of nationality. Nevertheless, in front of the new building that was built near the older one to expand, there is a modern bronze statue of a blindfolded lady justice with a scale.....
So, we can see it everywhere. I hope we can do the tour here in Rome and I'm looking foward to the lessons of next week. Good weekend!
Marieke van der Linden
ok for the 30 of April, I have no problems to come directly in front of the Palace.
RispondiEliminaI want to thank Flavia for these very useful informations!
And I have a question:
I'm also interested in going to Montecitorio, is there anybody who wants too?!
Let me know!
Flavia Mancini
Dear all,
RispondiEliminathe lessons about the "Palazzaccio" are been very interesting...!!
This afternoon I've found some old photos about the Palazzaccio!
I try to link them on the blog, but if I'll fail I suggest you the website http://www.facebook.com/Roma.Sparita :it's all about old photos of Rome!you can find the photos about Palazzaccio in the album "VII municipio".
The first photo is about the Palazzaccio in 1920:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3436453&id=244204026526&fbid=246524961526
The second and the third photos are about the construction of the Palazzaccio:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3441214&id=244204026526&fbid=247281271526
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3442381&id=244204026526&fbid=247428031526
The fourth photo shows the inauguration of the Cavour's statue in 1895:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3441211&id=244204026526&fbid=247281246526
The fifth photo shows the Palazzaccio from the side of Piazza Cavour:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3630808&id=244204026526
The sixth and the seventh photos show the Palazzaccio from the side of Lungotevere:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3673792&id=244204026526&fbid=311116656526
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3823805&id=244204026526&fbid=361012186526
The eighth photo shows the aerial view of Piazza Cavour:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3635944&id=244204026526&fbid=301672996526
The nineth photo shows the front of the Palazzaccio:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=3896903&id=244204026526&fbid=376805716526
The tenth photo is a postcard of the Palazzaccio in 1935:
http://www.facebook.com/Roma.Sparita#!/photo.php?pid=4015398&id=244204026526
Finally, I'd like to underline the fact that all the architects and all the engineers who tried to win the competition for the project of Palazzaccio did no think at the danger of building a palace on the bank of the river Tiber, on a fragile land...
We've seen how dangerous could be build a palace in the wrong place...
Nowadays, in projecting a building or a palace, it's fundamental to consider the security of the area where they will build, and also their impact with the space and the environment.
If you look at the modern palaces of justice built in our country you cannot find an "artistic" architecture; there is no solemnity.
There are no columns, no temples, no statues...
The aim in projecting a palace of justice is the warranty of the safety inside the court-rooms:
The Palermo's Palace of Justice was built in this sense, it is the only one which is able to celebrate maxi-trials in Italy because inside there are a room called "aula bunker".
Best,
Flavia Mancini
As we said today the tour will be probably on the 20 or 21 of May ...instead of the lesson, to end the course in a very particular way!
RispondiEliminaWe have to say to Flavia (Famà) how many of us will probably join the tour, so just write here on the blog!
I also would like to add a comment about today's Law and Cinema class .
The trial , by Orson Welles, reminded me something about Verga's novels.
Also Giovanni Verga (Catania 1840-ivi 1922) who nominally was studying Law at the University of Catania wrote his masterpieces e.g. "I Malavoglia", "Mastro don Gesualdo" or "Vita dei campi", putting in his novels a very resigned and realistic point of view concerning life and justice, as Welles did with "The Trial".
In my opinion Verga and Welles ( and Kafka also ) had lots in common because they were artists ,obviously each one of them in his specific issue, able to catch the most dreadful fears of men mostly linked to human powerlessness in front of SRTUCTURES ( as we said during Wednesday's class ) as Society ( in Verga's works) or Justice (as we can see in "The trial" by Welles).
There's resignation , anxiety, legitimate aspirations in their works but at the end there's always a man , alone with his mistreated life, unable to react to the system, maybe to his illogical and ineluctable destiny.
Is it a too far point of view from nowadays??!
Sometimes, honestly , It unfortunately still seems to me so actual...
Best
Anna Leonetti
Dear all,
RispondiEliminaI'm sorry, in my last post I made a mistake:
the albums which contain the photos about Palazzaccio are those about "XVII municipio" and not "VII municipio", as I wrote yesterday evening.
Have a nice weekend!
Flavia Mancini
I think that we can discuss about the visit commenting the other post that Dr Gialdroni has specifically dedicated to it; if some of us are writing here and others respond there, you may confuse!
RispondiEliminaAbout "The Trial", first of all i have to say that since high school my relationship with Kafka was not the best unfortunately! I'm referring for instance to "The Metamorphosis", another novella that i read during my last year at Lyceum, and i remember a bad feeling with Kafka's poetic imagination, unreal story and surreal setting!
I think that there is no middle ground, you may love Kafka, you may understand or accept his strange visionary world or you may not!
Anyway, despite my limits of understanding, i've watched the movie and.. i've confirmed my first impression :)!
Seriously, the plot is not easy to follow,i got lost several times (!), but i really appreciated the director's ability to recreate the surreality and sometimes the anguish of Kafka settings.
I'm agree on the fact the only way to really get into the movie is to considerate the story as a dream (or maybe a nightmare), or at least as something visionary and not real.
I think that is also significant the short and metaphorical opening scene (Before the Law), maybe the best scene of the movie, that is the real key to interpret the whole story, i mean, is it the law really accessible, is it the fate of those who are seeking for justice to wait in vain, to remain in the darkness of injustice without having a chance to see the light of the law?
It's really curious.. it seems to me that we can see today the opposite problem: who wants to really cross the door of justice?
Best Regards
Alessia Guaitoli
I actually do think that every man who asks for justice, needs justice and wants justice too.
RispondiEliminaThe purpose of the film was, in my opinion, to show how difficult and high demanding could be the achievement of justice, and also how strange and illogical could be life and feelings ...even if Welles did it in his very particular style, as Dr.Gialdroni said , leaving everyone of us free to interpret it.
Best
Anna Leonetti
Dear all,
RispondiEliminai've just posted my comment corcening the visit at the Palazzaccio in the other post, in fact is better to talk about the visit just in one post if not we can get confused.
I just wanted to say few words of the lessons of this week, they were very interesting. I'd really appreciated the lesson regarding our 'Court of Justice'- the Court of Cassation. Usually I pass by the Court of Cassation very often, even yesterday, so I've to admit that I've look at it in other point of view.
Knowing the backgrounds in which it was built, I payed attention in many things that i usually don't do, for instance, how Dr. Gialdroni was saying, i was thinking how at the end is it true that we don't have an immediate a direct sculpture concernig 'Justice', because it is on the top of the building,
and this reminded me the picture in which one of the head of a jurist sculpture was cover ,in occasion of the disorder happened in Genova, and this really impressed me!
Talking about the film 'The Trial' of Welles, i didn't manage to watched all, i'm sorry! Infact it wasn't easy to follow, now i understand why Dr Gialdroni did firstly a long preamble to the film! But the first images of the film where very strong, they leave me several question..for instance, if the law can be look just like an other a way to affirm the political power..
Best
Valentina Di Pietrantonio
Hi! Last week lessoms were very interesting, the idea of building these huge and magnificient buildings to give a proper place to the law is very impressive.
RispondiEliminaFryday's lesson where we saw Orson Wells' movie, The Trial was painful indeed!
From the very start to the end we see this man in troubles without understanding the reason why he is going to be judeged and then killed.
He is always trying to run away and he is too much envolved by the women he meets.
The feeling of anxiety characterizes the whole movie and I think it describes the nonsensical persecution against the jews.
We should remember that this fool persecutions still happen today, just think about Palestina and Cyprus... nobody wants to talk about this but I do think we should!
There are many things that are really actual, unfortunately, a case in piont is the extremely long duration of justice that never arrives. You can stay your enitere life knocking at her door and at the end of your life you cannot enter...
Another example is the nonsense of many sentences, many times people do not know or understamd the judgement or even the lawyer because they talk in another language that isn't understandable by common people.
The figure of lawyers and iof judge is always negative, and I am quite disappointed about it because there are many of them that study the case trying to help who is in trouble.
Just think abot an innocent behind bars...or condamned to death penalty... in America many of them were killed and then found innocent... we need honest lawyers, judges and politicians.
That's all, I'm getting too serious!!!
See you!
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RispondiEliminaHi everybody,
RispondiEliminaI just wanted to say a few words about the movie: First of all I think the aim is to reproduce the anguish that characterises all the Kafka's novels. In particular "the trial" has influenced the history of litterature showing a confused and unpredictable judicial system.
The movie criticizes justice and shows people as pawns of an incomprehensible system where law cannot be defeated and understood. In fact I think the size of the court and the insignificance of Joseph K. in front of it, let us think about the impotence of the human being in front of the law that can't be fought. The only way out is to accept the sentence. Maybe we might think about a blind justice but in a negative meaning: understood as a justice that doesn't distinguish guilt from innocence. I think the pessimistic vision of justice is well represented.
Finally I found interesting the link with architecture that is shown with the majestics buildings of law as the “palazzo di giustizia” (symbol of grandeur).
Unfortunately I had to go before the end of the movie so I haven't seen it.. but I read it :)
Hi all!
RispondiEliminaLast week the lesson about Law and Architecture was really interresting!
I was especially interested in two topics we discussed about.
1-Architeture and vision of Law
First I wouls like to stress the way architecture can deserve a certain image of law , wish can be illustrated trough "the trial" to Orson Welles and the architecure of "The Palazzo di Giustizia" in Rome
A-How the oppressive and inhuman vision of Justice can be representated through architetural elements
Orson Welles passes from the novel to film by the construction of a space architectural and urban purely cinematographic, aberrant, undoubtedly inspired of the prisons of Piranèse.
The assembly, in particular inputs and and the outputs of field, the ellipses, the plays of the light and architecture, appear a maze, at the same time mental and space-time, oppressive.
In 1962 Orson Welles agreed to direct a black-and-white adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial which clearly draws on the structural elements to achieve its effects.
In The Trial , by emphasizing the sense of disorientation, paranoia, and alienation Welles was able to create the cinematic equivalent of that strange blend of nightmare absurdity and theatrical farce that now goes in the novel of Kafka. In the film, Welles adheres to the logic, maintaining a geographical ambiguity. Welles shot the film in numerous European cities-Zagreb, Paris, Milan, Rome. . Although the editing is skillful enough to create a reasonable sense of continuity, at some level the viewer still registers the subtle incongruity and disorientation that Welles hoped to achieve.
The transition from Ka apartment to his bank office, which transports K. abruptly from Fraulein Burstner's bedroom to a large hall filled with hundreds of busy secretaries, sustains and reinforces the rupture of conventional continuity.
While in the novel it is a shadowy Court system, with its infinitely expanding hierarchy, that represents the modern nightmare of an overcrowded and overregulated society, Welles displaces this dystopian vision to Ka workplace.
To conclude Orson welles uses architetural elements to deserve his vision of Justice: a modern urban workplace expands Kafka's allegory of the Court as an interminable machine engulfing the human subject.
B- The architetural symbol of justice in Palace of Justice
"Palace of Justice" is a universally accepted euphemism for Court House. The terme Palace of Justice carries with it the embodiment of the interwined relationship between the professions of architecture and law. In producing the highest type of justice, therefore, architects and lawyers have gone hand down through the ages, and the architects have made a readily admitted large contribution in this worthy accomplishment for the betterment of the human race.
But what does represents palace of justice's architecture?
Buildings are designed to intimidate or facilitate
power?
For example the Palazzo di Giustizia in Roma is the seat and symbol of the centralized national judiciary.
Italy was reshaped in the nineteenth century by the ruling class through a laborious political process of legislative unification and a difficult social process of social process of cultural almalgation. Monumental architectural symbols on a national scale were erected in Rome for these purposes and are understood in the slogan "Roma Capitale" : the transformation of theformer papal capital as the seat of the new secular independaent state with with the erection of public building and commemorative monuments abd the redesigning of urban landscape.
The Palazzo di giustizia in Rome is an integr
The Palazzo di giustizia in Rome is an integral part of this edifying political and social process in its institutional functionas the nation's supreme court ans as an architectural symbol of that function.
RispondiEliminaII -law and women
Another subject which attracted my attention during the lesson is the connexion between law and the vision of women.
A-orson well : women and cupalbility
Throughout his trial, Josef K. comes into contact with a number of figures who aid and abet him within this absurd scenario, such as Miss Burstner, his boarding house neighbor, Hassler, his attorney, and Leni, Hassler's nurse. Throughout The Trial, a series of erotic scenarios involving Josef K. and a variety of female figures tend to link sexuality to the other corrupt dimensions of the court.
Thus, sexuality in the film is a source of guilt and anxiety for Josef K., rather than a source of resistance to the system that entraps him.
In both Kafka and film noir these femmes fatales scheme to entrap an unsuspecting protagonist, whose fatal attraction to corrupt and dangerous women makes him an easy victim.
Woman trough the Orson Welles' movie is associate with tentation, culapability..
According to some critics, this misogynistic image conveys a pervasive European mistrust of new-world technological progress represented in modernist art by the "crippling" influence of mysterious women linked with corrupt social systems.
B- palace of justice : women and virtue
on the contrary the architecture of Palace of Justice is full of female icon.
Rather, Justice is one of a series of images, most in the female form, associ-
ated with powerful concepts of virtues . Justice, like many of
these images, traces her ancestry to goddesses.
When goddesses lost currency as the Church grew in power, Justice appeared in Christian im-
agery-used not as a goddess but as a personification of the ancient virtue.
The paradox of that woman idealisation took place in the misogynist atmosphere of Palace of Justice.
To conclude this intervention I would like to thanks this really interesting lesson about law and architecture!
See you next wenesday.
All best.
Hélène
About the buildings of Cassazione in Italy and France I really appreciated the focus on the many decorative things (statues and pictures) wich make full the most important palaces of justice.
RispondiEliminaI think firmly that the administration of national justice must be supported with allegoric items wich give to the "citoyen" a civil-religious view of the justice, just passin near the palace of Cassazione.
For this reason I found really important the reference to the statue of Cavour near the palace of justice, not only because I am a fan of Risorgimento's period but also because I believe to the importance of the historical monument in the cities.
Dr. Gialdroni noticed the decision at the end of XIX century to put many statues in Rome.
I think that the Gianicolo's hill with the monuments of Garibaldi and other patriots (of the glorious roman republic of 1849) and the monumental graves of anita garibaldi e goffredo mameli shows this view of the importance of the national monuments. Also the Cassazione so it is a symbol.
about the movie of orson welles I would say that it is an hymn to the giuridical doctrine of "garantism" because it shows how a normal person could fall in the risky system of justice.
RispondiEliminaFortunately the progress of Democracy in western countries brought up rights and garantism in the system of justice.
The garantism is a great "polar star" for a Democracy... but as the allegorical "balance of Justice" must be in "equilibrium"... also the relation between garanitsm and "inquisitio" should be respected... because the excess to one or to the other doctrine could be daungeros first of all for the normal person.
Welles/Kafka : The judiciary world is an organized, hierarchical and tentacular system. We can notice it in the book by the different types of discharge. Welles uses the logic of a nightmare when he explains the discharge but the two versions of Kafka and Welles underline the absurdity of this world.
RispondiEliminaThere is a ramification like if justice was weaving its web. The notion of ramification is well exploited by Welles. Indeed, he uses many intricacies and creates a labyrinthine world.
Also, a depressive image in given to justice. In fact, justice appears corrupt, venal and incompetent. All the system relies on incomprehension. We are very close to a fantastic dimension which is very present with Kafka and well developted by Welles who is constantly playing in the disturbance of the reality. Finally, to image all Welles uses the representation of the veil statue which is the methaphor of a blind justice.
We talked about Kafka as the most famous example of dichtejurist. Kafka, in fact, was graduated in Law in 1906 and he performed an year of legal practice with the Prague's Court.
RispondiEliminaHis studies greatly influenced his novels, which are full of references to the legal world. The most representative example is, naturally, “The trial”.
Particularly impressed by this author, mostly after the reading of “The metamorphosis” and “Amerika”, I read, also, “Letter to his father”.
I consider this text very fitting with the class: Kafka sets up the dialogue with his father as a process. This work is full of legal terms like innocence, guilt, swear and condemnation.
Here you are some examples:
“And here again was your enigmatic innocence and inviolability; you cursed and swore without the slightest scruple; yet you condemned cursing and swearing in other people and would not have it.”
“What is innocence in you may be guilt in me, and vice versa; what has no consequences for you may be the last nail in my coffin.”
Camilla Bonadies
I just wanted to stress another point about the "Cour de cassation" in Paris.
RispondiEliminaI was interested to discover the stylistic origin of the building: antique/romanesque. In fact, Jospeh-Louis Duc who was one of the architects of the project had previously stayed for a period of time at the villa Medici at the same time as Felix Duban, Henri Labrouste and Leon Vandoyer. The four friends, renovated italian archeological remains from the antique and the renaissance, in particular the restoration of the colosseum. From this, Joseph-Louis Duc attracted alot of attention enabling him to become the inspector for the construction site of the "Palais de justice" started by Huyot in 1835.
All of this allows us to understand better the influences and motivations behind the design of the monument.
Hi Everyone,
RispondiEliminaI know this comment is a bit late but I am still finding some great links that may be useful for the exam. Reza Banakar's paper "In Search of Heimat: A Note on Franz Kafka's Concept of Law", available to download here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1574870#
Explores Franz Kafka's knowledge of the law and how his images and understanding of law helped to shape his works, including "The Trial" of course.
It is interesting to note that although the story of the trial may seem to us a surreal, almost existential account of a bizarre court proceeding, Kafka's novel is in fact based on real court records of the time, which he would have had access to and reliable knowledge of as a Lawyer.
Also, Kafka could in a way be seen as a living example of the coming together of Law and Literature when one considers the fact that he lead a sort of "double life" - Practicing law as an insurance lawyer during the day and writing fiction by night.
these lectures on Law and Architecture impressed me very much.
RispondiEliminaProbably "Il Palazzaccio" is not the most beautiful building ever built but I love Terry Rossy Kirk's and Dr Gialdroni's explanation on it, because they told us a story, better "the" story of that period..
It's fascinating that the Palace of Justice has an horizontal shape because it had to be different from the buildings of the other power of the time in Rome:the Church.
I found really amazing that the competion between the secular and the spiritual power reflected on the buildings, because "verba volant,scripta manent"(in this case buildings "manent" as a proof).I was fascinating also from the allegorical pictures you can find all around you inside the Palace: for istance Rossi Kirk highlits that in the original project there were a lot of lions in brackets as a sign of power, consequently deleted or replaced with bulls under yoke. Is it not quite strange that the bulls were the symbols, in some cases, you could find in the Church hieraldry?
At last I would like to add something on Zanardelli.Rossi Kirk reminds us that the head of the government decided every single detail about the Palace: one of these detail is the material used to build it. As everyone can see all the modern monuments in Rome are made of Travertino or Tufo or Mattoncino, because they are materials you can easily find in Rome and this fact can help Economy, too. Whereas the Palace of Justice and the other famous Zanardelli's buildings are made of Marmo di Carrara. Every single person can notice that they are the only two white buildings, in comparison with the grey, dirt white o dark red of the other materials. And that was made not to identify the two buildings from every site, but just because Zanardelli came from Emilia Romagna and in this way he helped the Economy of his country.That's what buildings tell us.The hisotry of the epoque and the way of acting of the men of power of the time.