Courting failure : women and the law in twentieth-century literature / Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macpherson, Heidi Slettedahl.

Series:

Series on law, politics, and society

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Law in literature.

Women in literature.

Courts in literature.

Canadian literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Canadian literature.

English literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Women--Legal status, laws, etc.

Women.

Legal films--History and criticism.

Legal films.

Legal television programs--History and criticism.

Legal television programs.

Feminist literary criticism.

Physical Description:

x, 294 pages ; 23 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Akron, Ohio : University of Akron Press, 2007.

Summary:

For the past twenty years, the law and literature movement has been gaining ground. More recently, a feminist perspective has enriched the field. With Courting Failure: Women and the Law in Twentieth-Century Literature, Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson adds a compelling voice to the discussion. Courting Failure critically explores the representation of women, fictional and historical, in conflict with the law. Macpherson focuses on the judicial system and the staging of women's guilt, examining both the female suspect and the female victim in a wide variety of media, including novels like Toni Morrison's Beloved and Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, theatrical plays, movies such as I Want to Live! and Legally Blonde, and the television series Ally McBeal. In these texts and others, canonical or popular, Macpherson exposes the court as an arena in which women often fail, or succeed only by subverting the system. Combining feminist literary theory with the discourse of the law and literature movement, Courting Failure is a highly readable and analytically rigorous study of justice and gender on the page and screen.

Contents:

Introduction : literature, law, and desire

Prison, passion, and the female gaze

Pursuit of property : neoslave narratives and the law

"Mother knows best" : women, children, and the law

Staging the scene : women, drama, and the law

Spectacular expectations : women, film, and the law

Conclusion : courting success.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-285) and index.

ISBN:

9781931968478

1931968470

9781931968485

1931968489

OCLC:

77004073