Victorian
Law and Nineteenth-Century Literature
By by , University of West England, Bristol (December 2005)
Sections: Victorian
Subjects: Literature, Law.
Periods: 1000 - 1999, 1800-1899.
Key Topics: monarchy, government , justice.
Abstract
This article examines the connections between law and literature, briefly considering work accomplished in this interdisciplinary field before focusing upon Charles Dickens's debate with the legal reformer and barrister James Fitzjames Stephen over the role of fiction during the nineteenth century. I contend that their altercation demonstrates how Dickens's presentation of alternative modes of administering justice through the fictive language of his novels was perceived to be a real threat to lawmakers such as Stephen.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00053.x
This article abstract has been viewed 2831 times.
Top 5 related articles
-
Socialism and Victorian Poetry
By by , Royal Holloway, University of London
(Vol. 2, December 2005)
Literature Compass -
The New Woman in the New Millennium: Recent Trends in Criticism of New Woman Fiction
By , University of Hull
(Vol. 2, December 2005)
Literature Compass -
Towards a Global Ecology of the Fin de Siècle
By and , University of Exeter
(Vol. 3, April 2006)
Literature Compass -
Where Next in Victorian Literary Studies? – Revising the Canon, Extending Cultural Boundaries, and the Challenge of Interdisciplinarity
By , University of Leicester
(Vol. 4, June 2007)
Literature Compass -
Victorian Life Writing
By , University of Hull
(Vol. 1, November 2004)
Literature Compass
Top 5 Related Blackwell Reference Chapters
Procedural Justice
My goal for this chapter is to review recent psychological research on social justice. This is a good ...
By Tom R. Tyler
The Government of Risks
Twenty years ago, a trawl through the annals of law and society research, including sociological criminology, ...
By Pat O'Malley
Distributive Justice
Every day, and in all walks of life, the sense of justice is at work. Humans form ideas about what is ...
By Guillermina Jasso
Social Justice, Theories of
Justice, in its many guises, is a fundamental principle ensuring order in social groups ranging from ...
By Karen A. Hegtvedt
Manners, Courts, and Civility
The Italian Renaissance is associated more with towns and urban culture than with princely courts. Nevertheless, ...
By Robert Muchembled