TY - JOUR
T1 - Narrative, law and emotion
T2 - husband killers in early nineteenth-century Ireland
AU - Barclay, Katie
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Scholars of emotion and the law have sought to demonstrate the significant role emotion plays in shaping the operation of courtrooms, the development of legal theory and practice, and the possibilities for justice. This paper contributes to the discussion by exploring what happens when emotion is ignored or underplayed in trial narratives, seeking to demonstrate that whose emotion is considered to be important can shed light on power dynamics, law and the cultures in which law operates. It does so through a case study of women on trial for murdering their husbands in early nineteenth-century Ireland. It argues that emotion is not simply another species of evidence that can be used in criminal processes, but itself a type of narrative - emotion is constructed and performed by actors in legal dramas and forms a competing story to others in the courtroom space.
AB - Scholars of emotion and the law have sought to demonstrate the significant role emotion plays in shaping the operation of courtrooms, the development of legal theory and practice, and the possibilities for justice. This paper contributes to the discussion by exploring what happens when emotion is ignored or underplayed in trial narratives, seeking to demonstrate that whose emotion is considered to be important can shed light on power dynamics, law and the cultures in which law operates. It does so through a case study of women on trial for murdering their husbands in early nineteenth-century Ireland. It argues that emotion is not simply another species of evidence that can be used in criminal processes, but itself a type of narrative - emotion is constructed and performed by actors in legal dramas and forms a competing story to others in the courtroom space.
KW - England
KW - Defenses
KW - Scotland
KW - Violence
KW - Murder
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=mq-pure-production&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:000403836200005&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
U2 - 10.1080/01440365.2017.1336893
DO - 10.1080/01440365.2017.1336893
M3 - Article
SN - 0144-0365
VL - 38
SP - 203
EP - 227
JO - Journal of Legal History
JF - Journal of Legal History
IS - 2
ER -