oa ‘Zo schrijft hij en zo doet hij’ - Literatuur als bewijsmateriaal in strafzaken tegen schrijvers

This article adresses the question of the institutional position of literature within jurisdiction and of the poetics of jurisdiction with regard to cases in which writers are accused of crimes that have nothing to do with literature. Dutch cases from the 1920s onwards are taken in order to see whether literature is dealt with in these procedures and if so, how it was looked at. This focus will be combined with using the Oscar Wilde-case in specific regards as a mirror for the less documented Dutch cases. It turns out that the standard way of literature within legal decision making is a referential and ethical one focussing on the character of the accused. By this, it reproduces a view that can be dated back into Greek-Roman antiquity – changes towards a more autonomistic poetics within jurisdiction are nowhere to be found. Also a relative growth of institutional autonomy of literature within legal decision making can hardly be discovered in the trials analysed here.