"SHE IS NOT A LADY, BUT A LEGAL DOCUMENT": THE TATTOO AS CONTRACT IN "MR. MEESON'S WILL"

[...]Patricia Murphy's "In the Sumptuous Rank of the Signifier" argues that Augusta's "tattoo acts as a means of control over the transgressive quasi-heroine" by stabilizing and thus controlling the meaning of this feminist figure and the threat she poses to patriarchal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Studies in the novel 2013-06, Vol.45 (2), p.178-197
Main Author:	CAMERON, S. BROOKE
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1800-1899 agency Authors Body Book publishing contract Contract law Contract negotiations Contracts Criminals English Literature female body Feminism Fiction Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard, Henry Rider, Sir Haggard, Sir Henry Rider heroine Law Legal Contracts Legal objections Literature Lombroso, Cesare (1835-1909) Meditation Mr Meeson's Will Nineteenth Century novel Novels Portrayals Property rights Reading Subjectivity Tattooing Tattooing in literature Tattoos Testimony Victorian period Victorians Wills in literature Women Women in literature Womens rights Works
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Summary:	[...]Patricia Murphy's "In the Sumptuous Rank of the Signifier" argues that Augusta's "tattoo acts as a means of control over the transgressive quasi-heroine" by stabilizing and thus controlling the meaning of this feminist figure and the threat she poses to patriarchal structures of sexual and economic exchange (229; see also Murphy's analysis of Haggard's She [1887]). For inspiration, I look to Cathrine O. Frank's article "Of Testaments and Tattoos," which frames Haggard's novel as a response to the Victorian Wills Act of 1837, as well as her recent book Law, Literature, and the Transmission of Culture in England, 1837-1925, which provides an in-depth analysis of Victorian fiction and legal discourse on wills and contracts.
ISSN:	0039-3827 1934-1512 1934-1512