Women, Infanticide and the Press, 1822-1922

Women, Infanticide and the Press, 1822-1922 PDF

Author: Nicola Goc

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-02-17

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1134778635

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In her study of anonymous infanticide news stories that appeared from 1822 to 1922 in the heart of the British Empire, in regional Leicester, and in the penal colony of Australia, Nicola Goc uses Critical Discourse Analysis to reveal both the broader patterns and the particular rhetorical strategies journalists used to report on young women who killed their babies. Her study takes Foucault’s perspective that the production of knowledge, of 'facts' and truth claims, and the exercise of power, are inextricably connected to discourse. Newspaper discourses provide a way to investigate the discursive practices that brought the nineteenth-century infanticidal woman - known as ’the Infanticide’ - into being. The actions of the infanticidal mother were understood as a fundamental threat to society, not only because they subverted the ideal of Victorian womanhood but also because a woman’s actions destroyed a man’s lineage. For these reasons, Goc demonstrates, infanticide narratives were politicised in the press and woven into interconnected narratives about the regulation of women, women's rights, the family, the law, welfare, and medicine that dominated nineteenth-century discourse. For example, the Times used individual stories of infanticide to argue against the Bastardy Clause in the Poor Law that denied unmarried women and their children relief. Infanticide narratives often adopted the conventions of the courtroom drama, with the young transgressive female positioned against a body of male authoritarian figures, a juxtaposition that reinforced male authority over women. Alive to the marked differences between various types of newspapers, Goc's study offers a rich and nuanced discussion of the Victorian press's fascination with infanticide. At the same time, infanticide news stories shaped how women who killed their babies were known and understood in ways that pathologised their actions. This, in turn, influenced medical, judicial, and welfare policies regar

Law and Society in England 1750-1950

Law and Society in England 1750-1950 PDF

Author: William Cornish

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-10-31

Total Pages: 672

ISBN-13: 1509931260

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Law and Society in England 1750–1950 is an indispensable text for those wishing to study English legal history and to understand the foundations of the modern British state. In this new updated edition the authors explore the complex relationship between legal and social change. They consider the ways in which those in power themselves imagined and initiated reform and the ways in which they were obliged to respond to demands for change from outside the legal and political classes. What emerges is a lively and critical account of the evolution of modern rights and expectations, and an engaging study of the formation of contemporary social, administrative and legal institutions and ideas, and the road that was travelled to create them. The book is divided into eight chapters: Institutions and Ideas; Land; Commerce and Industry; Labour Relations; The Family; Poverty and Education; Accidents; and Crime. This extensively referenced analysis of modern social and legal history will be invaluable to students and teachers of English law, political science, and social history.

Illegitimacy in English law and society, 1860–1930

Illegitimacy in English law and society, 1860–1930 PDF

Author: Ginger Frost

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1784997889

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Unlike most other studies of illegitimacy, Frost's book concentrates on the late-Victorian period and the early twentieth century, and takes the child's point of view rather than that of the mother or of 'child-saving' groups.

Victorian Classical Burlesques

Victorian Classical Burlesques PDF

Author: Laura Monros-Gaspar

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-10-22

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1472537882

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The Victorian classical burlesque was a popular theatrical genre of the mid-19th century. It parodied ancient tragedies with music, melodrama, pastiche, merciless satire and gender reversal. Immensely popular in its day, the genre was also intensely metatheatrical and carries significance for reception studies, the role and perception of women in Victorian society and the culture of artistic censorship. This anthology contains the annotated text of four major classical burlesques: Antigone Travestie (1845) by Edward L. Blanchard, Medea; or, the Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband (1856) by Robert Brough, Alcestis; the Original Strong-Minded Woman (1850) and Electra in a New Electric Light (1859) by Francis Talfourd. The cultural and textual annotations highlight the changes made to the scripts from the manuscripts sent to the Lord Chamberlain's office and, by explaining the topical allusions and satire, elucidate elements of the burlesques' popular cultural milieu. An in-depth critical introduction discusses the historical contexts of the plays' premieres and unveils the cultural processes behind the reception of the myths and original tragedies. As the burlesques combined spectacular effects with allusions to contemporary affairs, ambivalent and provocative attitudes to women, the plays represent an essential tool for reading the social history of the era.

Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850

Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850 PDF

Author: Alison Adam

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2019-11-28

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 3030288374

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This book charts the historical development of 'forensic objectivity' through an analysis of the ways in which objective knowledge of crimes, crime scenes, crime materials and criminals is achieved. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, with authors drawn from law, history, sociology and science and technology studies, this work shows how forensic objectivity is constructed through detailed crime history case studies, mainly in relation to murder, set in Scotland, England, Germany, Sweden, USA and Ireland. Starting from the mid-nineteenth century and continuing to the present day, the book argues that a number of developments were crucial. These include: the beginning of crime photography, the use of diagrams and models specially constructed for the courtroom so jurors could be ‘virtual witnesses’, probabilistic models of certainty, the professionalization of medical and scientific expert witnesses and their networks, ways of measuring, recording and developing criminal records and the role of the media, particularly newspapers in reporting on crime, criminals and legal proceedings and their part in the shaping of public opinion on crime. This essential title demonstrates the ways in which forensic objectivity has become a central concept in relation to criminal justice over a period spanning 170 years.

Policing Women

Policing Women PDF

Author: Jo Turner

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-27

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1000994511

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Policing Women examines for the first time the changing historical landscape of women’s experiences of their contact with the official state police between 1800 and 1950 in the Western world. Drawing on and going beyond existing knowledge about policing practices, the volume discusses how women encountered the official police, how they experienced that contact, and the outcomes of that contact in the modern Western world. In so doing, it is an original and much needed addition to the literature around changes in policing, women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, and women’s experiences of control and regulation. The chapters uncover such experiences in a range of countries across Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia. Importantly, the collection focuses upon a crucial epoch in the history of policing – a 150-year period when policing was rapidly changing and being increasingly placed on a formal level. Bringing together scholarly work from expert contributors, this unique volume draws to the fore women’s experiences of policing. It will be of great use to both scholars and students on undergraduate and postgraduate criminology and history courses, working on the history of crime, historical criminology, the history of criminal justice, and women’s history.

Women’s Criminalisation and Offending in Australia and New Zealand

Women’s Criminalisation and Offending in Australia and New Zealand PDF

Author: Victoria M. Nagy

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-22

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1003813135

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Women’s Criminalisation and Offending in Australia and New Zealand offers new research and analysis of women’s offending and criminalisation in Australia and New Zealand from British settlement through to the late twentieth/early twenty-first centuries. Drawing attention to women as offenders as understood in a multitude of ways, this collection highlights how women have been involved with crime and criminal behaviour, their treatment inside and outside of courts and prisons, and how women’s deviation from societal norms have attracted negative attention throughout the decades. For Aboriginal and Māori women especially, the responses were harsher than what they could be for non-indigenous women. The chapters cover a broad range of transgressions that women have been actively involved with, including theft, drug and alcohol abuse and offences, organised crime, and homicide, as well as how women’s behaviour and their bodies have been criminalised and responded to by authorities. What this collection demonstrates is that women have often chosen to be involved with crime and criminality, while on other occasions their behaviour, innocent as it was, was not considered acceptable by contemporaries, resulting in confusion and misapprehension of women who refused to fit a mould. Women’s Criminalisation and Offending in Australia and New Zealand brings together historical and criminological methods, theories, and scholars to shed light on how Australia and New Zealand’s colonial, later state, and national governments have sought to understand, control, and punish women. This collection will be of interest and value to scholars, students, and everyone with an interest in criminology, history, law, sociology, Indigenous studies, and Australian and New Zealand studies.

Travel and Representation

Travel and Representation PDF

Author: Garth Lean

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2017-07-01

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1785336037

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Travel and Representation is a timely volume of essays that explores and re-examines the various convergences between literature, art, photography, television, cinema and travel. The essays do so in a way that appreciates the entanglement of representations and travel at a juncture in theoretical work that recognizes the limits of representation, things that lie outside of representation and the continuing power of representation. The emphasis is on the myriad ways travelers/scholars employ representation in their writing/analyses as they re-think the intersections between travelers, fields of representation, imagination, emotions and corporeal experiences in the past, the present and the future.

The Routledge Handbook of Victorian Scandals in Literature and Culture

The Routledge Handbook of Victorian Scandals in Literature and Culture PDF

Author: Brenda Ayres

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-01

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 1000782638

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The Routledge Handbook of Victorian Scandals in Literature and Culture exposes, explores, and examines what Victorians once considered flagrant breaches of decorum. Infringements that were fantasized through artforms or were actually committed exceeded entertaining parlor gossip; once in print they were condemned as socially contaminative but were also consumed as delightfully sensational. Written by scholars in diverse disciplines, this volume: Demonstrates that spreading scandals seemed to have been one of the most entertaining sources of activities but were also normative efforts made by the Victorians to ensure conformity of decorum. Provides a broad spectrum of infractions that were considered scandalous to the Victorians. Identifies Victorian transgressions that made the news and that may still shock modern readers. Covers a gamut of moral infractions and transgressions either practiced, rumored, or fantasized in art forms. This handbook is an invaluable resource about Victorian literature, art, and culture which challenges its readers to ponder perplexing questions about how and why some scandals were perpetrated and propagated in the nineteenth century while others were not, and what the controversies reveal about the human condition that persists beyond Victoria’s reign of propriety.

Intimate Politics

Intimate Politics PDF

Author: Cassia Roth

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-23

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1040113494

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This book places the intimate experience of fertility control at the heart of political and social approaches toward women’s bodies. Across the globe, women have always controlled their fertility through intimate efforts ultimately tied to larger political processes and gendered power dynamics. Women’s biological reproductive capabilities have been contested sites of power struggles, shaping the formation, rule, and dissolution of political regimes throughout history. Yet these intersections between the intimate and the political remain understudied in the historical literature. This book explores these questions from the perspective of multiple time periods, geographic locations, actors, and methods. Chapters analyze how women’s individual practices of fertility control, including contraception, abortion, and infanticide, alongside methods for achieving conception and birth, intersected with larger political, economic, and cultural trends. Others problematize the ideas of ‘control’ in history. What did it mean to ‘control one’s fertility’ in different historical periods and geographical regions? How did historical actors understand and practise what we now call fertility control? How can we expand conventional definitions of fertility control to interrogate ideas related to infertility, menstruation, and heteronormativity? Contributors also highlight how race, ethnicity, and class intersect with gender to shape if, and how, women and men approached fertility control. This book will be of great value to students and scholars of history including the history of the body, women’s rights, and health equity, as well as the intersectionality of gender and health. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Women’s History Review.