Human cruelty in literature

A well-established study course and research path, still\r\nflourishing in the Catholic University of Milan, is intent upon exploring the connection between\r\n“Literature” and “Justice”, especially with regard to the fields of criminal law and criminology.\r\nLiterature is deemed particularly apt to reveal and let perceive as “cruel” (and thus obnoxiously\r\nsuperfluous)) not just punishments and penalties of certain kinds (e.g. torture, death penalty, etc.),\r\nbut in general any overgrown need for the infliction or acceptance of “legitimate” sufferings\r\nexpressed by our societies. This punitive attitude often stems from mentalities and practices rooted\r\nin institutions, social groups or individuals which are unable or unwilling to pay the “due\r\nattention” to those unique stories of human beings whose “open end” and “metamorphic” qualities\r\nperhaps make up the core of their dignity. It’s just literature which, “cultivating our humanity”,\r\nmay lead common people and law practitioners to discover and cherish these stories and the\r\ndignity therein.