Staging the Trials of Modernism : Testimony and the British Modern Literary Consciousness

In __Staging the Trials of Modernism__, Dale Barleben explores the interactions among literature, cultural studies, and the law through detailed analyses of select British modern writers including Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and James Joyce

In Staging the Trials of Modernism, Dale Barleben explores the interactions among literature, cultural studies, and the law through detailed analyses of select British modern writers including Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and James Joyce. By tracing the relationships between the literature, authors, media, and judicial procedure of the time, Barleben illuminates the somewhat macabre element of modern British trial process, which still enacts and re-enacts itself throughout contemporary judicial systems of the British Commonwealth.

Using little seen legal documents, like Ford's contempt trial decision, Staging the Trials of Modernism uncovers the conversations between the interior style of British Modern authors and the ways in which law began rethinking concepts like intent and the subconscious. Barleben’s fresh insights offer a nuanced look into the ways in which law influences literary production.

Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 Introduction – Turning and Turning: The Gyres of Modern Law, Culture, and the Interiority of the Civil Subject 9 1. Legal Reforms, the Blackmailer’s Charter, and Oscar Wilde’s Trials: The Legal Stage of Modernism 29 2. Law’s Empire Writes Back: Legal Positivism and Literary Rejoinder in Wilde and Conrad 59 3. High Modernist Challenges to Legal Authority in Ford and Joyce 90 4. Conclusion: Manufacturing Individual Identity 140 Notes 155 Works Consulted 169 Index 179