Representing Women: Law, Literature, and FeminismSusan Sage Heinzelman, Zipporah Batshaw Wiseman This anthology explores the provocative intersection between feminist, literary, and legal theories. Written by feminist thinkers from law and literature, discourses that each produce culturally powerful representations of women, these essays contest the boundaries that usually separate these disciplines and thereby alter the possibilities of those representations that have traditionally disempowered women. Beginning with an exploration of the ways in which women are represented--how they either tell or have their stories told in literature, in the law, in a courtroom--this collection demonstrates the interrelatedness of the legal and the literary. Whether considering the status of medieval women readers or assessing the effectiveness and extent of contemporary rape law reform, the essays show that power first comes with telling one's own story, and that the degree and effect of that power are determined by the cultural significance of the forum in which the story is presented. But telling the story is not enough. One must also be aware of how the story is contained within traditional constructs or boundaries and is thus limited in its effects, as Carol Sanger's essay on mothers and legal/sexual identity makes clear. One must also recognize how a story might perpetuate an ideological agenda that is not in the best interests of the storyteller, as Elizabeth Butler Cullingford shows in her reading of Yeats's "Leda and the Swan" and one must know the historical context of a story and of its telling, as Anne B. Goldstein's essay on lesbian narratives discloses. Breaking down the boundaries between law and literature, this anthology makes evident the ways in which the effect of women's stories has been constrained and expands the range of possibilities for those who represent women, tell women's stories, or present women's issues. Representing Women makes the retelling of old stories about women compelling and the telling of new ones both necessary and possible. Contributors. Kathryn Abrams, Linda Brodkey, Rita Copeland, Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, Margaret Anne Doody, Susan B. Estrich, Michelle Fine, Anne B. Goldstein, Angela P. Harris, Susan Sage Heinzelman, Christine L. Krueger, Martha Minow, Carol Sanger, Judy Scales-Trent |
Contents
in the Law Martha Minow 8 | 4 |
The Narrative and the Normative in Legal Scholarship | 44 |
On Being Black and White Different | 54 |
The Power of Popular Fiction | 75 |
Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory | 102 |
Presence of Mind in the Absence of Body Linda Brodkey | 147 |
The Case of Yeatss Leda | 165 |
Sex at Work Susan B Estrich | 189 |
Medieval Hermeneutics Statutory Law | 253 |
Women as Witnesses and Defendants in the | 287 |
Jurisprudential and Literary | 309 |
Trial Testimony in Novels by Tonna Gaskell | 337 |
Representing the Lesbian in Law and Literature | 356 |
Notes on Editors and Contributors | 385 |
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accused action actor Anna Anne argue authority Barbara behavior black women Blandy's Carolyn casting Catharine MacKinnon claim color context court Cranstoun criminal critical culture denied discourse discrimination employer essay essentialism Esther evidence experience female feminine Feminism feminist legal Feminist Theory fiction gender George Eliot heresy hermeneutical hostile environment issues judge jury Karen lawyer Leda legal scholarship legal theory lesbian literal literary literature Lollard MacKinnon male marriage Martha Minow Mary Blandy Mary's misogyny Miss Saigon mother narratives novel oppression person plaintiff poem political Presumed Innocent prosecution question quid pro quo race racism rape readers relationship representation representative role Roughead rules sexual harassment social speak story suggests supervisor Supp supra note Susan Estrich Swan tell testimony tion Title VII trial vernacular victim Vinson voice W. B. Yeats white women William witnesses woman workplace Yeats Yeats's