Marriage Discourses: Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2022

Marriage Discourses

Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation

Edited by: Jowan A. Mohammed and Frank Jacob
Funded by: Nord University

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110751451

Overview
Contents

About this book

Open Access

Marriage was historically not only a romantic ideal, but a tool of exploitation of women in many regards. Women were often considered commodities and marriage was far away from the romantic stereotypes people relate to it today. While marriages served as diplomatic tools or means of political legitimization in the past, the discourses about marital relationships changed and women expressed their demands more openly. Discourses about marriage in history and literature naturally became more and more heated, especially during the "long" 19th century, when marriages were contested by social reformers or political radicals, male and female alike. The present volume provides a discussion of the role of marriage and the discourses about in different chronological and geographical contexts and shows which arguments played an important role for the demand for more equality in martial relationships. It focuses on marriage discourses, may they have been legal or rather socio-political ones. In addition, the disputes about marriage in literary works of the 19th and 20th centuries are presented to complement the historical debates.

Author / Editor information

Frank Jacob, Nord Universitet, Bodø, Norway; Jowan A. Mohammed, Nord Universitet, Bodø, Norway.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Open Access Download PDF	V
1. Idealized Romantic Love, Legal Issues, and Patriarchic Exploitation: An Introduction to Historical and Literary Marriage Discourses Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed Open Access Download PDF	1
Section I: Marriage Discourses in Law and Politics
2. Political Marriage in Antiquity Sabine Müller Open Access Download PDF	25
3. Marriage Discourses in Conflict: Public and Private Order in Early Modern Spain Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha Open Access Download PDF	51
4. Challenging Patriarchy: Marriage and the Reform of Marriage Law in Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic Marion Röwekamp Open Access Download PDF	73
Section II: Marriage Discourses and Social Criticism
5. On the Discourse of the “New Sexual Morality” in the German Empire: Robert Michels’ Sexual Ethics between Women’s Movement, Social Democracy, and Sociology Vincent Streichhahn Open Access Download PDF	105
6. Marriage as Exploitation: Emma Goldman and the Anarchist Concept of Female Liberation Frank Jacob Open Access Download PDF	133
7 To End the Yoke of Marriage: Mary Hunter Austin and the Struggle Against Patriarchal Norms Jowan A. Mohammed Open Access Download PDF	159
Section III: Marriage Discourses in Literature
8. Redefining Marriage in Interwar Britain: Internal Transformation and Personal Sacrifice in the Poetry of H.D. Jamie Callison Open Access Download PDF	187
9. Scenes from a Marriage: The Age of Innocence as Discourse on the Transactional Value of Marriage Jessica Allen Hanssen Open Access Download PDF	207
10. “Marriages are just performances”: Staging Fashion, Comedy, and Feminism in Love, Loss and What I Wore Margaret Stetz Open Access Download PDF	231
Contributors Open Access Download PDF	255
Index Open Access Download PDF	257

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Scholar and students in history, literature and gender study.
Pages
- Front matter: 5
- Main content: 260
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 0
- Coloured Illustrations: 2
Keywords: Marriage discourses; marriage; marital relations; gender roles

eBook

Published: November 22, 2021
ISBN: 9783110751451

Hardcover

Published: December 6, 2021
ISBN: 9783110751338