English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-2025

Abstract

My dissertation investigates how English marriage laws restricting availability of divorce and remarriage, known as indissolubility, and laws depriving women of rights upon marriage, known as coverture, affected English literature. How these two sets of laws and rules, one developed by church authorities and the other by civil judges, arose out of a Biblical metaphor and created five hundred years of social and individual anxiety, as reflected in canonical and non-canonical English literature. I examine works of various genres and literary periods, demonstrating that authors over the centuries used their stories to resist and reform these laws. For theoretical guidance I rely on Michel Foucault’s theories of authorship and legal decentralization as well as Caroline Levine’s formalist theories to explain why literary works protesting oppressive marriage laws persisted through successive literary periods and genres, and why efforts to reform these laws took place over such a long period of time.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Sarah Townsend

Second Committee Member

Dr. Marissa Greenberg

Third Committee Member

Dr. Aeron Haynie

Fourth Committee Member

Dr. Stephen Bishop

Document Type

Dissertation

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