Gender and responsibility in Athenian legal discourse
The focus of this inquiry is the representation of women in Athenian legal texts and the relationship between gender and responsibility at Athens, centring on forensic oratory and including a discussion of the wider Athenian cultural discourse on gender and politics with a primary emphasis on the analogous public institution of tragedy. My objective is to map the disjunction between imputations of agency and responsibility to women in forensic texts and the actual legal capacities of Athenian women. My interpretative strategy aims to qualify previous positivist or gender-blind approaches to the study of 'women's history' and 'law' and is predicated on a double premise: firstly, that there existed at Athens a gendered analogy between citizenship and access to privileged fora for public speech; secondly, that in a legal discourse over which citizens exercised a narrative monopoly the women represented there are a fictive product of the rhetorical imperatives of litigants. Implicit in this hypothesis is the notion that the assignation of 'real' status to these female characters is radically problematic; my contention is that the appeal to female agency in legal narrative draws on fictional and stereotypical models
Fernandes, Helen Eugenie
Gender and responsibility in Athenian legal discourse. The focus of this inquiry is the representation of women in Athenian legal texts and the relationship between gender and responsibility at Athens, centring on forensic oratory and including a discussion of the wider Athenian cultural discourse on gender and politics with a primary emphasis on the analogous public institution of tragedy. My objective is to map the disjunction between imputations of agency and responsibility to women in forensic texts and the actual legal capacities of Athenian women. My interpretative strategy aims to qualify previous positivist or gender-blind approaches to the study of 'women's history' and 'law' and is predicated on a double premise: firstly, that there existed at Athens a gendered analogy between citizenship and access to privileged fora for public speech; secondly, that in a legal discourse over which citizens exercised a narrative monopoly the women represented there are a fictive product of the rhetorical imperatives of litigants. Implicit in this hypothesis is the notion that the assignation of 'real' status to these female characters is radically problematic; my contention is that the appeal to female agency in legal narrative draws on fictional and stereotypical models
gender responsibility athenian legal discourse focus inquiry representation_woman athenian legal_text relationship gender responsibility athens centre forensic oratory include_discussion wider athenian cultural discourse gender politics primary emphasis analogous public institution tragedy objective map disjunction agency responsibility woman forensic texts actual legal capacity athenian woman interpretative_strategy aim qualify previous positivist gender blind approach study women history law predicate double premise firstly exist athens gendered analogy citizenship access privilege fora public_speech secondly legal discourse citizen exercise narrative monopoly woman represent fictive product rhetorical imperative litigant implicit hypothesis notion real status female_character radically problematic contention appeal female agency legal narrative draw fictional stereotypical model