"The Supreme Court has unanimously held that Jackson Pollock#x0;s paintings, Arnold Schöenberg#x0;s music, and Lewis Carroll#x0;s poem (ُآتفققمْ(٣are (َآمّ(٣by the First Amendment. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense: all receive constitutional coverage under an amendment protecting (،ٱِممكوeven though none involves what we typically think of as speech#x0;the use of words to convey meaning. As a legal matter, the Court#x0;s conclusion is clearly correct, but its premises are murky, and they raise difficult questions about the possibilities and limitations of law and expression. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense do not employ language in any traditional sense, and sometimes do not even involve the transmission of articulable ideas. How, then, can they be treated as ((٣for constitutional purposesWhat does the difficulty of that question suggest for First Amendment law and theoryAnd can law resolve such inquiries without relying on aesthetics, ethics, and philosophyComprehensive and compelling, this book represents a sustained effort to account, constitutionally, for these modes of (.آٱِممكوWhile it is firmly centered in debates about First Amendment issues, it addresses them in a novel way, using subject matter that is uniquely well suited to the task, and whose constitutional salience has been under-explored. Drawing on existing legal doctrine, aesthetics, and analytical philosophy, three celebrated law scholars show us how and why speech beyond words should be fundamental to our understanding of the First Amendment."--Publisher's website.