Romancing the Tomes : Popular Culture, Law and Feminism

This provocative collection of essays by scholars from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand explores the uneasy relationship between law and popular culture from a feminist perspective. The essays not only consider the representation of law in popular culture, including film, crime fiction and the media, but also the representation of popular culture in legal texts. Romancing the Tomes shows that while popular culture is bewitched by law, particularly anything to do with sex and crime, law is anxious to resist the unruliness of popular culture. The collection is multidisciplinary, with contributors from a range of areas, including cultural studies, women's studies and legal studies. The essays are complemented by the poems of prize-winning lawyer-poet, MTC Cronin. Romancing the Tomes will appeal to a wide cross-section of academic and general readers. It is suitable for inclusion on undergraduate reading lists for law, history, women's studies, criminology and media studies, as well as any other course with an interest in cultural studies. With Contributions By Scholars From The Uk, Canada, Australia And New Zealand, This Provocative Collection Of Essays Explores The Uneasy Relationship Between Law And Popular Culture From A Feminist Perspective. 1 Law And Popular Culture : Engendering Legal Vertigo / Margaret Thornton -- 2 Lawyers Reading Law/lore As Popular Culture : Conflicting Paradigms Of Representation / Terry Threadgold -- 3 She's Watching The Judges : Media Feedback Loops And What Judges Notice / Isabel Karpin -- 4 Legal Sensations : Sexuality, Textuality And Evidence In A Victorian Murder Trial / Rosanne Kennedy -- 5 Domestic Violence, Discourses Of Romantic Love, And Complex Personhood In The Law / Nan Seuffert -- 6 Having Trouble With The Law : Racialised Punishment And Testimonies Of Resistance / Suvendrini Perera -- 7 Language As The 'pretty Woman' Of Law : Properties Of Longing And Desire In Legal Interpretation And Popular Culture / Judith Grbich -- 8 Madonna And/or Whore? : Feminism(s) And Public Sphere(s) / Ann Genovese -- 9 'the Barmaid', 'the Landlady' And 'the Pub[lican]'s Wife : History, Law And Popular Culture Of Women's Work In Pubs / Diane Kirkby -- 10 The Legal Regulation Of Cyberpornography : Law's Quest For Borders In A Borderless World / Paula Baron -- 11 Jail Babes: Turning The Sex Of Women's Imprisonment Inside Out / Susanne Davies And Sandy Cook -- 12 The Moral Of The Story : Gender And Murder In Canadian True Crime Magazines Of The 1940s / Carolyn Strange And Tina Loo -- 13 'the Mystery Of The Missing Discourse' : Crime Fiction Readership And Questions Of Taste / Sue Turnbull -- 14 The Illusion Of The 'real' In Ian Callinan's The Lawyer And The Libertine / Margaret Thornton. Edited By Margaret Thornton. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 271-302) And Index.