The Invention of Suspicion

Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Drama History & Criticism, Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law
Cover of the book The Invention of Suspicion by Lorna Hutson, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Lorna Hutson ISBN: 9780191615894
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: April 14, 2011
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Lorna Hutson
ISBN: 9780191615894
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: April 14, 2011
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

The Invention of Suspicion argues that the English justice system underwent changes in the sixteenth century that, because of the system's participatory nature, had a widespread effect and a decisive impact on the development of English Renaissance drama. These changes gradually made evidence evaluation a popular skill: justices of peace and juries were increasingly required to weigh up the probabilities of competing narratives of facts. At precisely the same time, English dramatists were absorbing, from Latin legal rhetoric and from Latin comedy, poetic strategies that enabled them to make their plays more persuasively realistic, more 'probable'. The result of this enormously rich conjunction of popular legal culture and ancient forensic rhetoric was a drama in which dramatis personae habitually gather evidence and 'invent' arguments of suspicion and conjecture about one another, thus prompting us, as readers and audience, to reconstruct this 'evidence' as stories of characters' private histories and inner lives. In this drama, people act in uncertainty, inferring one another's motives and testing evidence for their conclusions. As well as offering an overarching account of how changes in juridical epistemology relate to post-Reformation drama, this book examines comic dramatic writing associated with the Inns of Court in the overlooked decades of the 1560s and 70s. It argues that these experiments constituted an influential sub-genre, assimilating the structures of Roman comedy to current civic and political concerns with the administration of justice. This sub-genre's impact may be seen in Shakespeare's early experiments in revenge tragedy, history play and romance comedy, in Titus Andronicus, Henry VI and The Comedy of Errors, as well as Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, Bartholomew Fair and The Alchemist. The book ranges from mid-fifteenth century drama, through sixteenth century interludes to the drama of the 1590s and 1600s. It draws on recent research by legal historians, and on a range of legal-historical sources in print and manuscript.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Invention of Suspicion argues that the English justice system underwent changes in the sixteenth century that, because of the system's participatory nature, had a widespread effect and a decisive impact on the development of English Renaissance drama. These changes gradually made evidence evaluation a popular skill: justices of peace and juries were increasingly required to weigh up the probabilities of competing narratives of facts. At precisely the same time, English dramatists were absorbing, from Latin legal rhetoric and from Latin comedy, poetic strategies that enabled them to make their plays more persuasively realistic, more 'probable'. The result of this enormously rich conjunction of popular legal culture and ancient forensic rhetoric was a drama in which dramatis personae habitually gather evidence and 'invent' arguments of suspicion and conjecture about one another, thus prompting us, as readers and audience, to reconstruct this 'evidence' as stories of characters' private histories and inner lives. In this drama, people act in uncertainty, inferring one another's motives and testing evidence for their conclusions. As well as offering an overarching account of how changes in juridical epistemology relate to post-Reformation drama, this book examines comic dramatic writing associated with the Inns of Court in the overlooked decades of the 1560s and 70s. It argues that these experiments constituted an influential sub-genre, assimilating the structures of Roman comedy to current civic and political concerns with the administration of justice. This sub-genre's impact may be seen in Shakespeare's early experiments in revenge tragedy, history play and romance comedy, in Titus Andronicus, Henry VI and The Comedy of Errors, as well as Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, Bartholomew Fair and The Alchemist. The book ranges from mid-fifteenth century drama, through sixteenth century interludes to the drama of the 1590s and 1600s. It draws on recent research by legal historians, and on a range of legal-historical sources in print and manuscript.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book The Social Net by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Emergencies in Mental Health Nursing by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book The Specification of Human Actions in St Thomas Aquinas by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book The Law of State Immunity by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book EU Social and Employment Law 2E by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Rose's Strategy of Preventive Medicine by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book The End of Lawyers?: Rethinking the nature of legal services by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book The Age of Stress by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Not a Chimp by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Messy Morality by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book The Oxford History of Modern War by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Birds in the Ancient World by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Fairness in International Criminal Trials by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Signal Crimes by Lorna Hutson
Cover of the book Renaissance Architecture by Lorna Hutson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy