Law and literature have been two of the most powerful discourses in the construction of social reality. The relationship between the two has emerged as a vital new area of study, as literature has influenced popular understanding of law. Utilizing legal and literary theory, Kieran Dolin examines the interplay between legal discourse and the novel in the century between Walter Scott and E. M. Forster. This comprehensive study draws on legal and literary theory to trace this important convergence of disciplines in a series of canonical Victorian and Modernist texts.

Кл.слова:
право -- література

Annotation. Press coverage of the 1888 mutilation murders attributed to Jack the Ripper was of necessity filled with gaps and silences, for the killer remained unknown and Victorian journalists had little experience reporting serial murders and sex crimes. This engrossing book examines how fourteen London newspapers-dailies and weeklies, highbrow and lowbrow-presented the Ripper news, in the process revealing much about the social, political, and sexual anxieties of late Victorian Britain and the role of journalists in reinforcing social norms. L. Perry Curtis surveys the mass newspaper culture of the era, delving into the nature of sensationalism and the conventions of domestic murder news. Analyzing the fourteen newspapers-two of which emanated from the East End, where the murders took place-he shows how journalists played on the fears of readers about law and order by dwelling on lethal violence rather than sex, offering gruesome details about knife injuries but often withholding some of the more intimate details of the pelvic mutilations. He also considers how the Ripper news affected public perceptions of social conditions in Whitechapel.

Кл.слова:
серійні вбивства -- злочинність -- медіа

This work provides a detailed history of infanticide in mainland Britain from 1600 to the modern era for the very first time. It examines continuity and change in the nature and characteristics of new-born child murder in Scotland, England and Wales over a chronology of more than four centuries. Alongside offering a comparative analysis of the types of individuals suspected of the offence, and a detailed appreciation of the different ways in which the crime was carried out, the work also exposes the broad nexus of causal factors which underpinned its enactment. In addition, the work investigates the evolving attitude in social, medical and legal contexts to the killing of young infants in Britain over a substantive time period. Thus the work as a whole is both compelling and innovative as it provides the reader with much more than a mere history of infanticide. The book also contributes much to our understanding of criminal history, gender history, legal history, medical history and social history in its analyses of the different contexts allied to the offence. It does this also through its exploration of the complex characteristics of accusers, commentators and perpetrators across cultures, borders and time.

Кл.слова:
інфантицид -- вбивства -- кримінал