Law, Equity and Romantic Writing - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism) by Michael Demson & Regina Hewitt (Hardcover)

About the Book

Explores the pursuit of justice through the processes of writing, reading and interpreting in Enlightenment and Romantic-period literature

Book Synopsis

This provocative and timely volume examines the activity of seeking justice through literature during the 'age of revolutions' from 1750 to 1850 - a period which was marked by efforts to expand political and human rights and to rethink attitudes towards poverty and criminality. While the chapters revolve around legal topics, they concentrate on literary engagements with the experience of the law, revealing how people perceived the fairness of a given legal order and worked with and against regulations to adjust the rule of law to the demands of conscience. The volume updates analysis of this conflict between law and equity by drawing on the concept of 'epistemic injustice' to describe the harm done to personal identity and collective flourishing by the uneven distribution of resources and the wish to punish breaches of order. It shows how writing and reading can foment inquiries into the meanings of 'justice' and 'equity' and aid efforts to humanise the rule of law.

From the Back Cover

[headline]Explores the pursuit of justice through the processes of writing, reading and interpreting in Enlightenment and Romantic-period literature This provocative and timely volume examines the activity of seeking justice through literature during the 'age of revolutions' from 1750 to 1850 - a period which was marked by efforts to expand political and human rights and to rethink attitudes towards poverty and criminality. While the chapters revolve around legal topics, they concentrate on literary engagements with the experience of the law, revealing how people perceived the fairness of a given legal order and worked with and against regulations to adjust the rule of law to the demands of conscience. The volume updates analysis of this conflict between law and equity by drawing on the concept of 'epistemic injustice' to describe the harm done to personal identity and collective flourishing by the uneven distribution of resources and the wish to punish breaches of order. It shows how writing and reading can foment inquiries into the meanings of 'justice' and 'equity' and aid efforts to humanise the rule of law. [bio]Michael Demson is Professor of English at Sam Houston State University. He co-edited, with Christopher Clason, Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms (2020) and with Regina Hewitt, Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era (2019). His graphic novel, Masks of Anarchy: From Percy Shelley to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, was published in 2013. Regina Hewitt is Professor of English at the University of South Florida. Her most recent publications include Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-Making during the Romantic Era, co-edited with Michael Demson (2019) and an edition of Lawrie Todd for the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of John Galt (2023). Hewitt was formerly Co-Editor of the European Romantic Review and she now serves as a Consulting Editor for that journal. In 2023, she was elected Chair of the John Galt Society.

Review Quotes

Exploring epistemic injustices and reforms, equity and normative standards, these essays reveal how Romantic-era literature conceptualized justice in ways that echo urgently with today's social dilemmas and literary-critical debates.--Mark Schoenfield, Vanderbilt University

About the Author

Michael Demson is Professor of English at Sam Houston State University. He coedited, with Christopher Clason, Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms (2020) and, with Regina Hewitt, Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era (2019). He has published articles in European Romantic Review, Romanticism, Romantic Circles, The Keats-Shelley Journal, The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, among others. His graphic novel, Masks of Anarchy: From Percy Shelley to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, was published in 2013.

Regina Hewitt is Professor of English at the University of South Florida. Her most recent publications include Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-Making during the Romantic Era, co-edited with Michael Demson (2019), and an edition of Lawrie Todd for the Edinburgh University Press Edition of the Works of John Galt (2023). In 2023, she was elected Chair of the John Galt Society. Formerly Co-Editor of the European Romantic Review, she now serves as a Consulting Editor for that journal.