Publication details
Her step-daughter
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | There are times or situations in the history of each nation when official sources or platforms such as academia or politics fail to see or communicate what problems the society struggles with. In such circumstances, it is the art that provides a stage for criticism. When trying to identify and understand such parts of our history, we need to analyze works of art instead of treaties or laws. This paper examines how the literature of the late 19th century shaped the concept of statehood of the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia) and its legal system. Using the example of Gabriela Preiss's drama, Her Stepdaughter shows what themes resonated in the literature of the time. At the same time, it examines how the law is portrayed in them. Methodologically, it is a case study of one particular novel and uses a content analysis method and usual methods of interpretation of the text. This paper is a part of the long-term research project focused on Law and Literature in the Czech legal culture, in particular at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in Central Europe. This paper aims to discuss the connections between the representation of legal issues in the literary works of the time, their then legal regulation by the Austrian monarchy, and the regulation in the newly formed Czechoslovakia. The interpretation of these contexts is partly based on legal studies from the time of the First Republic and partly on contemporary critical legal studies and theater studies. |