Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales (Hardcover)

In Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales, Robin Chapman Stacey explores the idea of law as a form of political fiction: a body of literature that blurs the lines generally drawn between the legal and literary genres. She argues that for jurists of thirteenth-century Wales, legal writing was an intensely imaginative genre, one acutely responsive to nationalist concerns and capable of reproducing them in sophisticated symbolic form. She identifies narrative devices and tropes running throughout successive revisions of legal texts that frame the body as an analogy for unity and for the court, that equate maleness with authority and just rule and femaleness with its opposite, and that employ descriptions of internal and external landscapes as metaphors for safety and peril, respectively. Historians disagree about the context in which the lawbooks of medieval Wales should be read and interpreted. Some accept the claim that they originated in a council called by the tenth-century king Hywel Dda, while others see them less as a repository of ancient custom than as the Welsh response to the general resurgence in law taking place in western Europe. Stacey builds on the latter approach to argue that whatever their origins, the lawbooks functioned in the thirteenth century as a critical venue for political commentary and debate on a wide range of subjects, including the threat posed to native independence and identity by the encroaching English; concerns about violence and disunity among the native Welsh; abusive behavior on the part of native officials; unwelcome changes in native practice concerning marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and fears about the increasing political and economic role of women.

General

Imprint:	University of PennsylvaniaPress
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	The Middle Ages Series
Release date:	October 2018
First published:	2019
Authors:	Robin Chapman Stacey
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 32mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Paper over boards
Pages:	344
ISBN-13:	978-0-8122-5051-0
Categories:	Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal history Books > Humanities > History > World history > 500 to 1500 Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history > General Books > History > British & Irish history > General Books > History > World history > 500 to 1500 Promotions
LSN:	0-8122-5051-6
Barcode:	9780812250510

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!