Daniel Mendelsohn
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199249565
- eISBN:
- 9780191719356
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199249565.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Plays and Playwrights: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book is a study of Euripides' so-called ‘political plays’ (Children of Herakles and Suppliant Women). Still disdained as the anomalously patriotic or propagandistic works of a playwright ...
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This book is a study of Euripides' so-called ‘political plays’ (Children of Herakles and Suppliant Women). Still disdained as the anomalously patriotic or propagandistic works of a playwright elsewhere famous for his subversive, ironic, artistic ethos, the two works in question — notorious for their uncomfortable juxtaposition of political speeches and scenes of extreme feminine emotion — continue to be dismissed by scholars of tragedy as artistic failures unworthy of the author of Medea, Hippolytus, and Bacchae. This study makes use of recent insights into classical Greek conceptions of gender (in real life and on stage) and Athenian notions of civic identity to demonstrate that the political plays are, in fact, intellectually subtle and structurally coherent exercises in political theorizing — works that use complex interactions between female and male characters to explore the advantages, and costs, of being a member of the polis.Less
This book is a study of Euripides' so-called ‘political plays’ (Children of Herakles and Suppliant Women). Still disdained as the anomalously patriotic or propagandistic works of a playwright elsewhere famous for his subversive, ironic, artistic ethos, the two works in question — notorious for their uncomfortable juxtaposition of political speeches and scenes of extreme feminine emotion — continue to be dismissed by scholars of tragedy as artistic failures unworthy of the author of Medea, Hippolytus, and Bacchae. This study makes use of recent insights into classical Greek conceptions of gender (in real life and on stage) and Athenian notions of civic identity to demonstrate that the political plays are, in fact, intellectually subtle and structurally coherent exercises in political theorizing — works that use complex interactions between female and male characters to explore the advantages, and costs, of being a member of the polis.
Saskia Lettmaier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569977
- eISBN:
- 9780191722066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569977.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter summarizes the evolution of the breach-of-promise action between 1800 and 1940, and draws attention to the action's importance to legal history for providing an illustration of the law's ...
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This chapter summarizes the evolution of the breach-of-promise action between 1800 and 1940, and draws attention to the action's importance to legal history for providing an illustration of the law's responsiveness to cultural mythology.Less
This chapter summarizes the evolution of the breach-of-promise action between 1800 and 1940, and draws attention to the action's importance to legal history for providing an illustration of the law's responsiveness to cultural mythology.
Efrossini Spentzou
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199255689
- eISBN:
- 9780191719608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255689.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity ...
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This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity slipping through their closed stasis and tearing the masculine fabric of Ovid's text, advertising a feminine rhetoric. However, their nuances gained substance only through a sympathetic reading, and this book's author's sensitivity to their efforts due to her explicit situation as a female reader. This book has worked on the feminine reading and writing of the Heroides with the aid of contemporary feminist thought.Less
This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity slipping through their closed stasis and tearing the masculine fabric of Ovid's text, advertising a feminine rhetoric. However, their nuances gained substance only through a sympathetic reading, and this book's author's sensitivity to their efforts due to her explicit situation as a female reader. This book has worked on the feminine reading and writing of the Heroides with the aid of contemporary feminist thought.
Rosalind Brown‐Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554140
- eISBN:
- 9780191721069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554140.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that ...
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This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that found in earlier works in the genre. It attributes these changes in the representation of chivalric masculinity, adolescent self-determination, spousal identity, and marital love to the moralising culture of the day as seen in works such as moral treatises, chivalric biographies, and marriage sermons. It stresses that whilst these later romances have traditionally been seen as extremely uniform, the adoption of a gender approach in fact reveals great diversity in terms of their depiction of characters, choice of narrative strategies, and attitudes to love and marriage. It ends by suggesting ways in which this contextualising approach to the study of gender in historico-realist romance might be applied to other types in the genre.Less
This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that found in earlier works in the genre. It attributes these changes in the representation of chivalric masculinity, adolescent self-determination, spousal identity, and marital love to the moralising culture of the day as seen in works such as moral treatises, chivalric biographies, and marriage sermons. It stresses that whilst these later romances have traditionally been seen as extremely uniform, the adoption of a gender approach in fact reveals great diversity in terms of their depiction of characters, choice of narrative strategies, and attitudes to love and marriage. It ends by suggesting ways in which this contextualising approach to the study of gender in historico-realist romance might be applied to other types in the genre.
H. L. Meakin
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184553
- eISBN:
- 9780191674297
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184553.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on John Donne's articulation of the feminine in his prose and poetry. It suggests that Donne is more than the masculine monolith which has been ...
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This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on John Donne's articulation of the feminine in his prose and poetry. It suggests that Donne is more than the masculine monolith which has been part of the almost casual observance in criticism of his prose and poetry. It argues that there are valid grounds for extending Donne's reputation for originality and iconoclasm to his construction of gender. This is particularly true in his exploration of lesbian love and the fluidity of gender boundaries in his poems and early verse letters.Less
This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on John Donne's articulation of the feminine in his prose and poetry. It suggests that Donne is more than the masculine monolith which has been part of the almost casual observance in criticism of his prose and poetry. It argues that there are valid grounds for extending Donne's reputation for originality and iconoclasm to his construction of gender. This is particularly true in his exploration of lesbian love and the fluidity of gender boundaries in his poems and early verse letters.
Efrossini Spentzou
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199255689
- eISBN:
- 9780191719608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255689.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter is concerned with the heroines' feminine voice. Building on the metapoetic metaphor of the heroines' artistic awakening, it follows their efforts to establish their own discourse and ...
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This chapter is concerned with the heroines' feminine voice. Building on the metapoetic metaphor of the heroines' artistic awakening, it follows their efforts to establish their own discourse and turn themselves from scriptae puellae (‘written girls’) to writing women, whose flowing narrative responds to descriptions of the female nature and creativity from ancient philosophy to modern French feminism. Specific emphasis is given to the symbolic significance of their (in)famous and much derided enclosure, which reveals powerful characteristics of a feminine space and a feminine order.Less
This chapter is concerned with the heroines' feminine voice. Building on the metapoetic metaphor of the heroines' artistic awakening, it follows their efforts to establish their own discourse and turn themselves from scriptae puellae (‘written girls’) to writing women, whose flowing narrative responds to descriptions of the female nature and creativity from ancient philosophy to modern French feminism. Specific emphasis is given to the symbolic significance of their (in)famous and much derided enclosure, which reveals powerful characteristics of a feminine space and a feminine order.
Anne McGillivray
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199652501
- eISBN:
- 9780191739217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199652501.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Three contemporary works tell the story of a girl's journey through the labyrinth to retrieve her mother's baby from the goblins. Maurice Sendak's picture book Outside Over There (1981) and Jim ...
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Three contemporary works tell the story of a girl's journey through the labyrinth to retrieve her mother's baby from the goblins. Maurice Sendak's picture book Outside Over There (1981) and Jim Henson's film Labyrinth (1986) are framed as stories for children. Guillermo del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth (2006) draws on the tropes of children's fiction to tell an adult story of the horrors of war. The hero Theseus strode through the Cretan labyrinth to find a child-eating monster. In these stories, the monster is a baby and the hero is a girl. This chapter asks why. Part 2.2 considers the nature of the labyrinth and significations of the mythic labyrinth. Part 2.3 summarizes the three labyrinth stories and draw connections with Wonderland's Alice. Part 2.4 explores the significance of the girl-child and connections between the feminine, the labyrinth, and the law. Part 2.5 considers the meanings of goblins while Part 2.6 looks at the labyrinth and desire.Less
Three contemporary works tell the story of a girl's journey through the labyrinth to retrieve her mother's baby from the goblins. Maurice Sendak's picture book Outside Over There (1981) and Jim Henson's film Labyrinth (1986) are framed as stories for children. Guillermo del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth (2006) draws on the tropes of children's fiction to tell an adult story of the horrors of war. The hero Theseus strode through the Cretan labyrinth to find a child-eating monster. In these stories, the monster is a baby and the hero is a girl. This chapter asks why. Part 2.2 considers the nature of the labyrinth and significations of the mythic labyrinth. Part 2.3 summarizes the three labyrinth stories and draw connections with Wonderland's Alice. Part 2.4 explores the significance of the girl-child and connections between the feminine, the labyrinth, and the law. Part 2.5 considers the meanings of goblins while Part 2.6 looks at the labyrinth and desire.
Iris Marion Young
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195161922
- eISBN:
- 9780199786664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195161920.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The introduction presents an overview of the essays included in this volume, which are presented as a set of overlapping inquiries about social meanings of female embodiment. The distinction between ...
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The introduction presents an overview of the essays included in this volume, which are presented as a set of overlapping inquiries about social meanings of female embodiment. The distinction between “female” and “feminine” experience is explained and the tradition of existential phenomenlogy is described. The essays are shown to take a feminist perspective, both as expressing sex and gender-specific female subjectivity, and as claiming that women are not as free as they ought to be.Less
The introduction presents an overview of the essays included in this volume, which are presented as a set of overlapping inquiries about social meanings of female embodiment. The distinction between “female” and “feminine” experience is explained and the tradition of existential phenomenlogy is described. The essays are shown to take a feminist perspective, both as expressing sex and gender-specific female subjectivity, and as claiming that women are not as free as they ought to be.
Iris Marion Young
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195161922
- eISBN:
- 9780199786664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195161920.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and ...
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This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and relation in space. It highlights the certain observable and rather ordinary ways in which women in society typically comport themselves and move differently from the ways that men do. The account developed here combines the insights of the theory of the lived body as expressed by Merleau-Ponty and the theory of the situation of women as developed by Beauvoir. It limits itself to the experience of women in contemporary advanced industrial, urban, and commercial society, offering specific observations, phenomenlogical interpretation, and implications for an understanding of the oppression of women.Less
This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and relation in space. It highlights the certain observable and rather ordinary ways in which women in society typically comport themselves and move differently from the ways that men do. The account developed here combines the insights of the theory of the lived body as expressed by Merleau-Ponty and the theory of the situation of women as developed by Beauvoir. It limits itself to the experience of women in contemporary advanced industrial, urban, and commercial society, offering specific observations, phenomenlogical interpretation, and implications for an understanding of the oppression of women.
Gary D. DeAngelis, Warren G. Frisina, Judith Berling, Geoffrey Foy, and John Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195332704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332704.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This collaborative effort between an experienced teacher/scholar and two (then) graduate students presents three “overlapping” strategies for teaching the DDJ. The first emphasizes situating the DDJ ...
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This collaborative effort between an experienced teacher/scholar and two (then) graduate students presents three “overlapping” strategies for teaching the DDJ. The first emphasizes situating the DDJ within the context of Zhou Chinese intellectual struggles and then proceeds by student led discussions about thematically grouped chapters. The second contrasts contemporary expectations regarding gender language with the DDJ 's own use of feminine metaphors in order to help students uncover what the text may mean when it uses those metaphors in the way that it does. The third aims to turn the DDJ 's notorious ambiguity to the teacher's advantage by leading students through a series of re‐readings of the text from different points of view. This third strategy helps students to see how their understanding of the text changes with each re‐reading, and that all interpretations are context‐dependent.Less
This collaborative effort between an experienced teacher/scholar and two (then) graduate students presents three “overlapping” strategies for teaching the DDJ. The first emphasizes situating the DDJ within the context of Zhou Chinese intellectual struggles and then proceeds by student led discussions about thematically grouped chapters. The second contrasts contemporary expectations regarding gender language with the DDJ 's own use of feminine metaphors in order to help students uncover what the text may mean when it uses those metaphors in the way that it does. The third aims to turn the DDJ 's notorious ambiguity to the teacher's advantage by leading students through a series of re‐readings of the text from different points of view. This third strategy helps students to see how their understanding of the text changes with each re‐reading, and that all interpretations are context‐dependent.
Derek B. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151961
- eISBN:
- 9780199870394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151961.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter examines some of the conventions involved in representing the erotic in music, and reveals the ideological character of these conventions. The disparity and mutability uncovered by a ...
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This chapter examines some of the conventions involved in representing the erotic in music, and reveals the ideological character of these conventions. The disparity and mutability uncovered by a comparison of representations of sexual desire in three differing musical styles (Baroque opera, the Victorian drawing-room ballad, and Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s and 1930s) show that a genealogy of sexuality in music needs to address disjunctions rather than developments, historical contingencies rather than evolutionary questions. There is certainly no progress to be discovered in the way eroticism has been depicted in music: representations of eroticism in contemporary music are not more real now than they were in the 17th century. The fact that the latter can seem cool or alien to us today points to the way sexuality has been constructed in relation to particular stylistic codes in particular historical contexts, and is therefore cultural rather than natural.Less
This chapter examines some of the conventions involved in representing the erotic in music, and reveals the ideological character of these conventions. The disparity and mutability uncovered by a comparison of representations of sexual desire in three differing musical styles (Baroque opera, the Victorian drawing-room ballad, and Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s and 1930s) show that a genealogy of sexuality in music needs to address disjunctions rather than developments, historical contingencies rather than evolutionary questions. There is certainly no progress to be discovered in the way eroticism has been depicted in music: representations of eroticism in contemporary music are not more real now than they were in the 17th century. The fact that the latter can seem cool or alien to us today points to the way sexuality has been constructed in relation to particular stylistic codes in particular historical contexts, and is therefore cultural rather than natural.
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter studies Balzac's Louis Lambert (1832), in which the character of Lambert is a (possibly) mentally ill genius who retreats into a world to which only his erstwhile fiancée has access. ...
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This chapter studies Balzac's Louis Lambert (1832), in which the character of Lambert is a (possibly) mentally ill genius who retreats into a world to which only his erstwhile fiancée has access. Through his writings Balzac attempts to examine and portray a certain topic on the matter of geniuses: the essential role played by women in their survival. Louis Lambert ends with the destruction of the main character, a male genius who nonetheless exemplifies all Balzac's own ideas about genius, and is also its most complete and elaborate theorist. Once again, fiction's interest in its failure may reveal more about genius than success. And that failure is also accompanied—still with considerable ambiguity—by the female presence that Balzac argued also deserved recognition as the essential helpmeet of genius.Less
This chapter studies Balzac's Louis Lambert (1832), in which the character of Lambert is a (possibly) mentally ill genius who retreats into a world to which only his erstwhile fiancée has access. Through his writings Balzac attempts to examine and portray a certain topic on the matter of geniuses: the essential role played by women in their survival. Louis Lambert ends with the destruction of the main character, a male genius who nonetheless exemplifies all Balzac's own ideas about genius, and is also its most complete and elaborate theorist. Once again, fiction's interest in its failure may reveal more about genius than success. And that failure is also accompanied—still with considerable ambiguity—by the female presence that Balzac argued also deserved recognition as the essential helpmeet of genius.
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.003.0019
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published ...
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This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published under the collective title Le Génie feminine. Her perspective is predominantly psychoanalytic as she approaches her subject with a certain boldness as she treats female genius as a given rather than defensively pleading the cause. Hence, collectively, the trilogy offers a psychoanalytically grounded account of gender and femininity as part of its reflection on genius. Genius takes a new, explicitly gendered form here and it does so thanks to the mix of literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis that is characteristic of the later years of “French theory.”Less
This chapter turns to Julia Kristeva's discussion of female genius. It presents Kristeva's three biographical studies of Hannah Arendt (1999), Melanie Klein (2000), and Colette (2002), published under the collective title Le Génie feminine. Her perspective is predominantly psychoanalytic as she approaches her subject with a certain boldness as she treats female genius as a given rather than defensively pleading the cause. Hence, collectively, the trilogy offers a psychoanalytically grounded account of gender and femininity as part of its reflection on genius. Genius takes a new, explicitly gendered form here and it does so thanks to the mix of literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis that is characteristic of the later years of “French theory.”
Dorota M. Dutsch
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199533381
- eISBN:
- 9780191714757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533381.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This introductory chapter surveys previous research on feminine speech patterns in Roman comedy and makes the case for a reading based on conversational analysis. This new reading draws upon ...
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This introductory chapter surveys previous research on feminine speech patterns in Roman comedy and makes the case for a reading based on conversational analysis. This new reading draws upon statistics for the distribution of terms of endearment, polite modifiers, and references to pain, in order to foreground relational aspects of speech as the chief domain of gender differentiation in the palliata. The proposed method is then applied to several excerpts of female speech from Terence and Plautus. A close reading of these passages suggests that female characters in Roman comedy tend to stress closeness and intimacy both through explicit terms denoting relationships and through relevant verbal actions, such as discussing problems and paying attention to the problems of others.Less
This introductory chapter surveys previous research on feminine speech patterns in Roman comedy and makes the case for a reading based on conversational analysis. This new reading draws upon statistics for the distribution of terms of endearment, polite modifiers, and references to pain, in order to foreground relational aspects of speech as the chief domain of gender differentiation in the palliata. The proposed method is then applied to several excerpts of female speech from Terence and Plautus. A close reading of these passages suggests that female characters in Roman comedy tend to stress closeness and intimacy both through explicit terms denoting relationships and through relevant verbal actions, such as discussing problems and paying attention to the problems of others.
Saskia Lettmaier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569977
- eISBN:
- 9780191722066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569977.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This introductory chapter sets the stage by first establishing links with two fields of scholarship, with regard to which the book can usefully be situated: (i) works examining the interaction ...
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This introductory chapter sets the stage by first establishing links with two fields of scholarship, with regard to which the book can usefully be situated: (i) works examining the interaction between the law and social forces extraneous to the law or, put more crudely, the permeability of the law to cultural ideology; and (ii) nineteenth-century women's history. It then presents the tools of analysis – empiricism and literature – for examining the effects and wider implications of the postulated alliance between the breach-of-promise action and prevalent notions of ideal femininity.Less
This introductory chapter sets the stage by first establishing links with two fields of scholarship, with regard to which the book can usefully be situated: (i) works examining the interaction between the law and social forces extraneous to the law or, put more crudely, the permeability of the law to cultural ideology; and (ii) nineteenth-century women's history. It then presents the tools of analysis – empiricism and literature – for examining the effects and wider implications of the postulated alliance between the breach-of-promise action and prevalent notions of ideal femininity.
Saskia Lettmaier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569977
- eISBN:
- 9780191722066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569977.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter opens with a case study (Orford v. Cole) that presents in detail the way the breach-of-promise action was structured around nineteenth-century notions of ideal womanhood. It provides a ...
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This chapter opens with a case study (Orford v. Cole) that presents in detail the way the breach-of-promise action was structured around nineteenth-century notions of ideal womanhood. It provides a consideration of the strategies practised by plaintiffs and their counsel to obscure the structural inconsistency, and compares these strategies to those practised by other nineteenth-century women similarly positioned on the outskirts of domesticity, on the dangerous interface between the public and the private, so to speak: women writers and women scientists. The chapter finds evidence for the success of these strategies in both the phenomenal awards secured by early-period breach-of-promise plaintiffs and in the fictional records that date from the early period. In the early period, there is no evidence of any fictional exploitation of the structural inconsistency. Rather than exploiting the suit-immanent inconsistency, writers in the early period display a marked tendency to create an inconsistency by inverting the feminine ideal and casting that inversion in the plaintiff role. The artistic effects of this studied ‘miscasting’ – of putting a widow or virago figure where a true woman should be – are both ludicrous and faintly nauseating. In this disharmony, in both the depiction and the reaction it evokes, there is an element of the grotesque, which may be regarded as the dominant aesthetic of early-period breach-of-promise fiction.Less
This chapter opens with a case study (Orford v. Cole) that presents in detail the way the breach-of-promise action was structured around nineteenth-century notions of ideal womanhood. It provides a consideration of the strategies practised by plaintiffs and their counsel to obscure the structural inconsistency, and compares these strategies to those practised by other nineteenth-century women similarly positioned on the outskirts of domesticity, on the dangerous interface between the public and the private, so to speak: women writers and women scientists. The chapter finds evidence for the success of these strategies in both the phenomenal awards secured by early-period breach-of-promise plaintiffs and in the fictional records that date from the early period. In the early period, there is no evidence of any fictional exploitation of the structural inconsistency. Rather than exploiting the suit-immanent inconsistency, writers in the early period display a marked tendency to create an inconsistency by inverting the feminine ideal and casting that inversion in the plaintiff role. The artistic effects of this studied ‘miscasting’ – of putting a widow or virago figure where a true woman should be – are both ludicrous and faintly nauseating. In this disharmony, in both the depiction and the reaction it evokes, there is an element of the grotesque, which may be regarded as the dominant aesthetic of early-period breach-of-promise fiction.
Saskia Lettmaier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569977
- eISBN:
- 9780191722066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569977.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter considers the high Victorian abandonment of the previously employed strategies of containment and the attendant exposure of the structural inconsistency. It demonstrates that as the ...
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This chapter considers the high Victorian abandonment of the previously employed strategies of containment and the attendant exposure of the structural inconsistency. It demonstrates that as the structural inconsistency was rendered more visible, so the breach-of-promise action and, more particularly, the breach-of-promise plaintiff became targets of cultural exclusion and attack. Plaintiff success was dampened and breach-of-promise fiction started to thrive on an exploitation of the structural inconsistency. The plaintiff of the high Victorian period is the ideal corrupted, a pinchbeck angel. Her outwardly perfect womanhood is shown to be inwardly flawed, hollow, and vicious. In the high Victorian period, breach-of-promise comedy takes on the features of satire as it dramatizes the utter lack of coherence between surface appearance and reality, between professions of virtue and the practices that contradict them.Less
This chapter considers the high Victorian abandonment of the previously employed strategies of containment and the attendant exposure of the structural inconsistency. It demonstrates that as the structural inconsistency was rendered more visible, so the breach-of-promise action and, more particularly, the breach-of-promise plaintiff became targets of cultural exclusion and attack. Plaintiff success was dampened and breach-of-promise fiction started to thrive on an exploitation of the structural inconsistency. The plaintiff of the high Victorian period is the ideal corrupted, a pinchbeck angel. Her outwardly perfect womanhood is shown to be inwardly flawed, hollow, and vicious. In the high Victorian period, breach-of-promise comedy takes on the features of satire as it dramatizes the utter lack of coherence between surface appearance and reality, between professions of virtue and the practices that contradict them.
David George Mullan
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269977
- eISBN:
- 9780191600715
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269978.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The book makes an implicit judgement that the religious culture that emerged in Scotland at the end of the sixteenth century was widely analogous to the Puritanism that dominated the Church of ...
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The book makes an implicit judgement that the religious culture that emerged in Scotland at the end of the sixteenth century was widely analogous to the Puritanism that dominated the Church of England at the same time, though with the significant distinction that in Scotland, Presbyterianism was more successful than south of the Tweed. Scottish Puritan writers, mainly clergy, of course, and including as in England, both Presbyterians and most Episcopalians, began to produce significant amounts of practical piety around 1590, both evoking and supplying a kind of lay piety that emphasized an emotional religious content. Central to this piety was the Word, the Bible, and also the sermons and literature that divines prepared for pulpit and press—enhanced by a strong attachment to the sacraments, and particularly to the Lord's Supper. Laymen and laywomen were urged to engage in Bible reading, meditation, prayer, Sabbath observance, family devotional activities and attendance of celebrations of the Lord's Supper, even in parishes other than their own. The inner life typically included a shattering experience of conversion and a striving for a sense of assurance that God had indeed included one amongst the limited numbers of the elect. Women not less than men were the objects of pastoral concern and the feminine formed an essential part of the discourse of divinity. The notion of the covenant was linked indissolubly to this theology, though differing conceptions of covenant—national and personal—did not mesh well and thus inscribed a deep tension upon Scottish Puritanism. The author raises a question as to whether this emotional and conversion‐based piety was reconcilable with the sense of a nation in a covenantal relationship with God, and whether the National Covenant of 1638 represented a fulfilment or a betrayal of the divinity of the previous two generations during which Protestant divines had offered very little by way of resistance theory. But this outlook was quickly awakened after the prayer book riots of July 1637.Less
The book makes an implicit judgement that the religious culture that emerged in Scotland at the end of the sixteenth century was widely analogous to the Puritanism that dominated the Church of England at the same time, though with the significant distinction that in Scotland, Presbyterianism was more successful than south of the Tweed. Scottish Puritan writers, mainly clergy, of course, and including as in England, both Presbyterians and most Episcopalians, began to produce significant amounts of practical piety around 1590, both evoking and supplying a kind of lay piety that emphasized an emotional religious content. Central to this piety was the Word, the Bible, and also the sermons and literature that divines prepared for pulpit and press—enhanced by a strong attachment to the sacraments, and particularly to the Lord's Supper. Laymen and laywomen were urged to engage in Bible reading, meditation, prayer, Sabbath observance, family devotional activities and attendance of celebrations of the Lord's Supper, even in parishes other than their own. The inner life typically included a shattering experience of conversion and a striving for a sense of assurance that God had indeed included one amongst the limited numbers of the elect. Women not less than men were the objects of pastoral concern and the feminine formed an essential part of the discourse of divinity. The notion of the covenant was linked indissolubly to this theology, though differing conceptions of covenant—national and personal—did not mesh well and thus inscribed a deep tension upon Scottish Puritanism. The author raises a question as to whether this emotional and conversion‐based piety was reconcilable with the sense of a nation in a covenantal relationship with God, and whether the National Covenant of 1638 represented a fulfilment or a betrayal of the divinity of the previous two generations during which Protestant divines had offered very little by way of resistance theory. But this outlook was quickly awakened after the prayer book riots of July 1637.
Torsten Meissner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199280087
- eISBN:
- 9780191707100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280087.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Greek possesses a very small number of non-neuter s-stem nouns. Among these words, feminine nouns are rarer than masculine ones. Yet, the type, though weak, seems to be inherited from the parent ...
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Greek possesses a very small number of non-neuter s-stem nouns. Among these words, feminine nouns are rarer than masculine ones. Yet, the type, though weak, seems to be inherited from the parent language as witnessed by a (possibly imperfect) equation. In Latin, this inflectional paradigm was reasonably successful (compare with the numerous nouns in -ōs and -or like honōs/honor ‘honour’, flōs ‘flower’), but both Greek and Sanskrit show mere relics of this group.Less
Greek possesses a very small number of non-neuter s-stem nouns. Among these words, feminine nouns are rarer than masculine ones. Yet, the type, though weak, seems to be inherited from the parent language as witnessed by a (possibly imperfect) equation. In Latin, this inflectional paradigm was reasonably successful (compare with the numerous nouns in -ōs and -or like honōs/honor ‘honour’, flōs ‘flower’), but both Greek and Sanskrit show mere relics of this group.
Lucille Michaels
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195378443
- eISBN:
- 9780199869701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195378443.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the roles of women in the Holy Order of MANS and in the Order of Christ Sophia (OCS) and offers a model for understanding the relationships among gender roles, gender qualities, ...
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This chapter examines the roles of women in the Holy Order of MANS and in the Order of Christ Sophia (OCS) and offers a model for understanding the relationships among gender roles, gender qualities, and power in religious movements. It explores the teachings of these orders and how they relate to the roles of women. The founders of the OCS live in a time that is more appreciative of the feminine and have created an organization that more effectively empowers women and values the feminine. But, as happened with the Holy Order of MANS, there is always the risk of reversion to societal pressures to conform to gender roles. The fact that the OCS has integrated an appreciation of women at all levels of the structure and that the order educates its members to see, understand, and combat social and emotional pressures to conform to gender roles is key to its support for the long-term empowerment of women and honoring of the divine feminine.Less
This chapter examines the roles of women in the Holy Order of MANS and in the Order of Christ Sophia (OCS) and offers a model for understanding the relationships among gender roles, gender qualities, and power in religious movements. It explores the teachings of these orders and how they relate to the roles of women. The founders of the OCS live in a time that is more appreciative of the feminine and have created an organization that more effectively empowers women and values the feminine. But, as happened with the Holy Order of MANS, there is always the risk of reversion to societal pressures to conform to gender roles. The fact that the OCS has integrated an appreciation of women at all levels of the structure and that the order educates its members to see, understand, and combat social and emotional pressures to conform to gender roles is key to its support for the long-term empowerment of women and honoring of the divine feminine.
