Impassioned Jurisprudence

Law, Literature, and Emotion, 1760–1848

Edited by Nancy E. Johnson - Contributions by Simon Stern; J.T. Scanlan; Melissa J. Ganz; Erin Sheley; Peter de Bolla and Ian Ward

In this volume of essays, scholars of the interdisciplinary field of law and literature write about the role of emotion in English law and legal theory in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The law’s claims to reason provided a growing citizenry that was beginning to establish its rights with an assurance of fairness and equity. Yet, an investigation of the rational discourse of the law reveals at its core the processes of emotion, and a study of literature that engages with the law exposes the potency of emotion in the practice and understanding of the law. Examining both legal and literary texts, the authors in this collection consider the emotion that infuses the law and find that feeling, sentiment and passion are integral to juridical thought as well as to specific legislation.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6 x 8¾

978-1-61148-675-9 • Hardback • June 2015 • $98.00 • (£75.00)

978-1-61148-677-3 • Paperback • June 2015 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-1-61148-676-6 • eBook • June 2015 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Series: Aperçus: Histories Texts Cultures

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, History / Europe / Great Britain / General, Law / Legal History

Impassioned Jurisprudence

Law, Literature, and Emotion, 1760–1848

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In this volume of essays, scholars of the interdisciplinary field of law and literature write about the role of emotion in English law and legal theory in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The law’s claims to reason provided a growing citizenry that was beginning to establish its rights with an assurance of fairness and equity. Yet, an investigation of the rational discourse of the law reveals at its core the processes of emotion, and a study of literature that engages with the law exposes the potency of emotion in the practice and understanding of the law. Examining both legal and literary texts, the authors in this collection consider the emotion that infuses the law and find that feeling, sentiment and passion are integral to juridical thought as well as to specific legislation.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6 x 8¾

978-1-61148-675-9 • Hardback • June 2015 • $98.00 • (£75.00)

978-1-61148-677-3 • Paperback • June 2015 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-1-61148-676-6 • eBook • June 2015 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Series: Aperçus: Histories Texts Cultures

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, History / Europe / Great Britain / General, Law / Legal History

Author

Nancy E. Johnson is associate professor of English and Chair of the English Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Nancy E. Johnson
Chapter 1: Blackstone’s Legal Actors: The Passions of a Rational Jurist by Simon Stern
Chapter 2: Narrative Sentiment in Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence by Nancy E. Johnson
Chapter 3: ‘How Like You the Eloquence of a Young Barrister?: Love and the Law in Boswell’s Development as a Writer in the Late 1760s by J.T. Scanlan
Chapter 4: Freedom and Fetters: Nuptial Law in Burney’s The Wanderer by Melissa J. Ganz
Chapter 5: Doubled Jeopardy: The Condemned Woman as Historical Relic by Erin Sheley
Chapter 6: The Madness of Sovereignty: George III and the Known Unknown of Torture by Peter de Bolla
Chapter 7: The Great Dramatist: Macaulay and the English Constitution by Ian Ward
Appendix: Timeline of Selected Legal Publications, Legislation and Events
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index