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Law and Literature: Graffiti
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Law and Literature: Graffiti

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 8 June 2025 | Viewed by 2172

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Lindsay Stern

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Interests: law and literature; media studies; history of science and technology; poetry; wittgenstein

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

From the Latin “scariphare”, meaning “to mark the walls with forbidden signs”, “graffiti” entered Italian in the 19th century as a term for illicit markings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed on public surfaces. But this modern misdemeanor and art movement has a long history that overlaps with the cultural practices that would condemn it. Ancient emperors etched their edicts into the faces of cliffs, and medieval sovereigns engaged in law-scratching (Velasco 2019). Writing began among protohuman beings as the stenciling of pigment onto rock (Hoffman et al 2018). Today, paratextual techniques of authorization originating in premodernity—from ancient stamps and signatures to medieval seals and cords—survive in colophons, logos, bar- and QR codes, and other graphics.

This Special Issue invites contributions that consider the relationship of graffiti, broadly construed, to the institution of law, power, and space. While it welcomes discussion of the representation of law by artists, it is especially interested in proposals that probe the role of literary and visual experimentation in shaping physical and digital environments. If dirt, for Mary Douglas, is “matter out of place”, what constitutes writing “out of place” (Douglas 1966)? What role do forms of inscription, whether licit or illicit, play in what Julie Stone Peters calls law’s “art of the real” (Peters 2022)? Contributions from scholars working across modalities, fields and periods are welcome. Please submit proposals of 250 words max. to Lindsay Stern ().

Dr. Lindsay Stern
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • law
  • literature
  • graffiti
  • media
  • writing
  • performance
  • law-scratching
  • cultural techniques

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 780 KiB  
Article
Graffiti and the Aura of Anonymity
by Adrian Guo Silver
Humanities 2025, 14(5), 110; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050110 - 19 May 2025
Viewed by 51
Abstract
Graffiti’s dual existence as both public art and illicit practice has generated sustained legal, cultural, and aesthetic debates. This article examines the role of anonymity in shaping how graffiti is recognized, regulated, and interpreted within both legal frameworks and artworld aesthetics. Focusing on [...] Read more.
Graffiti’s dual existence as both public art and illicit practice has generated sustained legal, cultural, and aesthetic debates. This article examines the role of anonymity in shaping how graffiti is recognized, regulated, and interpreted within both legal frameworks and artworld aesthetics. Focusing on the legal battle over 5Pointz, a prominent New York graffiti site that was whitewashed in 2013 and demolished in 2014, I analyze how the Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. case reveals a structural tension between graffiti’s collective ethos and the legal system’s emphasis on identifiable authorship. Drawing upon legal studies, urban cultural theory, and aesthetics, this article explores how the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) mediated the legal recognition of graffiti, often privileging curated, institutionally sanctioned works while rendering anonymous street art legally vulnerable. I further synthesize scholarly perspectives on 5Pointz to highlight how legal discourse constructs and delimits the status of graffiti within public spaces. Ultimately, I argue that anonymity functions not simply as an absence of authorship but as an aesthetic and political mode of experiencing the object, one that challenges traditional frameworks of artistic attribution and cultural legitimacy. By interrogating the legal and ideological forces that shape graffiti’s recognition, this article situates anonymity as a central, yet often overlooked, feature of graffiti’s critical and aesthetic power. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Law and Literature: Graffiti)
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15 pages, 9063 KiB  
Article
Graffiti in the Lawscape: Seizing the Circuits of Valorization of an Elusive and Resistant Practice
by Cecilia Brazioli and Andrea Mubi Brighenti
Humanities 2025, 14(5), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14050108 - 15 May 2025
Viewed by 231
Abstract
In this piece, we approach graffiti from the perspective of the ‘circuits of valorization’ that qualify as well as quantify it. We understand a valorization circuit as an assemblage of cultural, legal, economic and geographic dynamics surrounding a given artefact, which eventually confer [...] Read more.
In this piece, we approach graffiti from the perspective of the ‘circuits of valorization’ that qualify as well as quantify it. We understand a valorization circuit as an assemblage of cultural, legal, economic and geographic dynamics surrounding a given artefact, which eventually confer a certain ‘value’ to it. Here, we look at examples of global graffiti, with attention to how cities and administrations juggle with its controversial valorization, implementing various policies to rein it in, but also to exploit it. Typically, graffiti appears and lives in ill-defined, metamorphic urban spaces: as an urban artefact, graffiti occupies loose, interstitial places and rhymes with an aesthetic of defacement and infestation. The ‘in place/out of place’ dialectic is thus central for claims to legitimacy, legality, and, ultimately, also the ‘quality’ of graffiti. Through the lens of radical legal pluralism, we argue that graffiti can insert a distinctive dynamism into the lawscape, rather than be a sheer inert object of urban policies. Graffiti itself actively participates, not simply in populating the lawscape, but in its actual crafting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Law and Literature: Graffiti)
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24 pages, 4799 KiB  
Article
Graffiti, Street Art and Ambivalence
by Graeme Lorenzo Evans
Humanities 2025, 14(4), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/h14040090 - 15 Apr 2025
Viewed by 818
Abstract
The article considers the practice and praxis of graffiti and street art from the perspectives of law enforcement, local government and placemaking, and between the production and consumption of this ambivalent form of cultural expression. The work is based on primary, site-based research [...] Read more.
The article considers the practice and praxis of graffiti and street art from the perspectives of law enforcement, local government and placemaking, and between the production and consumption of this ambivalent form of cultural expression. The work is based on primary, site-based research and visualisation undertaken in Europe, North America and Australia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Law and Literature: Graffiti)
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