Connubial Fictions
The Evolution of Marriage in American Law and Literature
Will be published approx. on 23. January 2027
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-19-782496-2 (ISBN)
Description
Connubial Fictions explores law and marriage in the United States, seen through the lens of American literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this edited volume, scholars of law and the humanities combine legal scholarship with literary analysis to explore how American literature has portrayed marriage's complex legal dimensions over time. They cover diverse fictional works including Frances Harper's Iola Leroy, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead novels, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and works by Edward Albee, Philip Roth, Octavia Butler, Maggie Nelson, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Through these works, contributors examine a wide range of legal and literary themes: the true ownership of a marriage, how investments involved in a marriage compare to investments in a business, how the denial of marriage rights affected same-sex couples, how marriage rights changed queer aesthetics, the prospects for truth in marriage, the constraints and possibilities for immigrant marriages, how procreation norms affect childless marriages, the challenges of interracial intimacy and marriage, the paucity of modern literature depicting interracial marriages, the nature of separations before no-fault divorce, the divorce revolution and the best interests of children of divorce, and the problem of equality and alimony.
Convention and law have often shielded the intimate aspect of marriage from public view. This volume shows how literature has pulled back the curtain and shown us the various lived experiences of marriage, of all kinds.
Through these works, contributors examine a wide range of legal and literary themes: the true ownership of a marriage, how investments involved in a marriage compare to investments in a business, how the denial of marriage rights affected same-sex couples, how marriage rights changed queer aesthetics, the prospects for truth in marriage, the constraints and possibilities for immigrant marriages, how procreation norms affect childless marriages, the challenges of interracial intimacy and marriage, the paucity of modern literature depicting interracial marriages, the nature of separations before no-fault divorce, the divorce revolution and the best interests of children of divorce, and the problem of equality and alimony.
Convention and law have often shielded the intimate aspect of marriage from public view. This volume shows how literature has pulled back the curtain and shown us the various lived experiences of marriage, of all kinds.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-19-782496-2 (9780197824962)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jonathan S. Masur is John P. Wilson Professor of Law; the Director of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Program in Behavioral Law, Finance and Economics; and the David and Celia Hilliard Research Scholar, all at the University of Chicago Law School. He received a BS in physics and an AB in political science from Stanford University and his JD from Harvard Law School. Masur is the co-author of Happiness and the Law (2015) and co-editor of Cannons and Codes: Law, Literature, and America's Wars (2021).
Richard H. McAdams is Bernard D. Meltzer Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of The Expressive Powers of Law (2015), and co-editor of Fatal Fictions: Crime and Investigation in Law and Literature (2017) and Fairness in Law and Economics (2013). His poetry has been published in Cream City Review and The Literary Nest.
Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, in the Law
School and Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago. She is the author or co-author of over 500 articles and twenty-six books, including most recently The Republic of Love: Opera, Breath, and Freedom (2026) and The Tenderness of Silent Minds: Benjamin Britten and His War Requiem (2024). Nussbaum has received the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy (2016), the Holberg Prize (2021), and the Balzan Prize (2022).
Richard H. McAdams is Bernard D. Meltzer Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of The Expressive Powers of Law (2015), and co-editor of Fatal Fictions: Crime and Investigation in Law and Literature (2017) and Fairness in Law and Economics (2013). His poetry has been published in Cream City Review and The Literary Nest.
Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, in the Law
School and Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago. She is the author or co-author of over 500 articles and twenty-six books, including most recently The Republic of Love: Opera, Breath, and Freedom (2026) and The Tenderness of Silent Minds: Benjamin Britten and His War Requiem (2024). Nussbaum has received the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy (2016), the Holberg Prize (2021), and the Balzan Prize (2022).
Editor
John P. Wilson Professor of LawJohn P. Wilson Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Bernard D. Meltzer Professor of LawBernard D. Meltzer Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and EthicsErnst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, Law School and the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago
Content
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