| Description |
xiv, 164 pages ; 22 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Summary |
"In the early 18th Century, Daniel Defoe found it natural to write a novel whose heroine was a sexually adventurous, socially marginal property offender. Only half a century later, this would have been next to unthinkable. Lacey explores the disappearance of Moll, and her supercession in the annals of literary female offenders by heroines like Tess, serving as a metaphor for fundamental changes in ideas of selfhood, gender and social order in 18th and 19th Century England. Drawing on law, literature, philosophy and social history, she argues that these broad changes underpinned a radical shift in mechanisms of responsibility-attribution, with decisive implications for the criminalization of women. This book examines how the treatment and understanding of female criminality was changing during the era which saw the construction of the main building blocks of the modern criminal process, and of how these understandings related in turn to broader ideas about gender, social order and individual agency. Lacey tells the story of the shifting relationship between informal codes of norms such as the 'cult of sensibility' and the formal system of criminal justice, and of the impact on women and on understandings of femininity of these complementary systems of discipline. By drawing on a wide variety of sources, it casts light into corners which remain obscure in accounts informed by a single discipline"--Publisher description. |
| Contents |
'Don't go to murder my character': criminal responsibility in the age of Moll Flanders -- 'What is the use of a woman's will?': the demise of Moll in the age of sensibility -- 'The weaker half of the human family'?: responsibility, mind and morals in the age of Tess. |
| Subject |
Female offenders -- England -- History -- 18th century.
|
|
Female offenders. |
|
England. |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
18th century |
| Subject |
Female offenders -- England -- History -- 19th century.
|
| Chronological Term |
19th century |
| Subject |
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731 -- Characters -- Moll Flanders.
|
|
Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. |
|
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928 -- Characters -- Tess Durbeyfield.
|
|
Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928. |
|
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Social aspects -- England -- History.
|
|
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. |
|
Social aspects. |
|
Law and literature.
|
|
Law and literature. |
|
Social change -- England -- History -- 18th century.
|
|
Social change. |
|
Social change -- England -- History -- 19th century.
|
|
Social change in literature.
|
|
Social change in literature. |
|
Law -- England -- History -- 18th century.
|
|
Law. |
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Law -- England -- History -- 19th century.
|
|
Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.
|
|
Literature and society. |
|
Great Britain. |
|
Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.
|
|
Women. |
|
Womyn. |
|
Law. |
| ISBN |
9780199544363 alkaline paper |
|
0199544360 alkaline paper |
|
