Gender, Law, and the British Novel

Organized by Martha Nussbaum, Alison LaCroix, and Jane Dailey, this conference is the second in a series of law and literature conferences, the first of which was the successful Shakespeare conference held in the spring of 2009.

This conference focuses on the interplay between law and gender in English literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It seeks to explore, through a legal lens, the literary themes generated by gender and gender roles from Henry Fielding to George Bernard Shaw. The conference hopes to imbue a broader understanding of the legal and social philosophies that changed and were changed by the respective roles of women and men in England, encouraging a deeper and more complex appreciation in the fields of both literature and the law. Distinguished writer Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski detective novels, will be a guest speaker.

Following the tradition set by the first law and literature conference, faculty and student actors will perform dramatic scenes from English plays of the era.

Gender, Law, and the British Novel: Student Panel

This panel was recorded May 14, 2010, as part of the conference "Gender, Law, and the British Novel," organized by Martha Nussbaum, Alison LaCroix, and Jane Dailey.

Participants included:

• Alyssa Luboff, "Old Maids, Widows and Kindred Spirits: the Struggle Between Ideal Freedom and Social Reality in L.M. Montgomery's Anne Novels"
• Ann K. Wagner, "Sexual Assault in the Shadow of the Law: Character and Proof in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa"
• Jajah Wu, "Call it Gossip: Persuasion and the Power of Information"
• Student Commentators: Julie Murray, Jajah Wu
• Chair: Emily Buss 

Gender, Law, and the British Novel: Context and Interpretation

 This panel was recorded May 14, 2010, as part of the conference "Gender, Law, and the British Novel," organized by Martha Nussbaum, Alison LaCroix, and Jane Dailey. Participants included:

• Alison LaCroix, "The Lawyer's Library in the Early American Republic"
• Robert Ferguson, "Proposals and Performative Utterance in the Nineteenth-Century Novel: The Professional Man's Plight"
• Sandra Macpherson: "Character Shape: Toward a Feminist Formalism"
• Blakey Vermeule: "A Comeuppance Theory of Narrative"
• Chair: Eric Slauter 

Gender, Law, and the British Novel: Law and Family

This panel was recorded May 15, 2010, as part of the conference "Gender, Law, and the British Novel," organized by Martha Nussbaum, Alison LaCroix, and Jane Dailey. Participants included:

• Martha Nussbaum, "The Stain of Illegitimacy: Gender, Law, and Trollopian Subversion"
• Saul Levmore, "Primogeniture, Legal Change, and Trollope"
• Julie Suk, "Moral and Legal Consequences of Wife-Selling in The Mayor of Casterbridge"
• Chair: Julia Simon-Kerr 

Conference on Gender, Law, and the British Novel: Keynote Panel

This panel, which featured a talk by Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski novels, and discussion by Nicola Lacey of the London School of Economics and Law School faculty Martha Nussbaum and Alison LaCroix, was part of a conference on Gender, Law, and the British Novel that was held at the University of Chicago Law School on May 14-15, 2010. The conference was co-sponsored by the Center for Gender Studies. 

Fuente: The University of Chicago Law School