Downie, Alan (J. A.). 2015. Authorial Contexts: Connections between Fielding's Novels and His Legal and Journalistic Writing. In: Jennifer Preston Wilson and Elizabeth Kraft, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Henry Fielding. 139 New York: The Modern Language Association of America, pp. 48-53. ISBN 978-1-60329-223-8 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

The depictions of control and power in Fielding's novels corollate significantly with those in his legal and journalistic writings. This essay notes the consistency of Fielding's outrage at the ignorance and corruption of the legal system. Citing Squire Allworthy as the rare example of a skilled magistrate against a slew of bad ones, it shows that throughout his career Fielding railed against abuses of the law at all levels of practice but especially against the assignment of capital punishment to petty offences. The language of law permeates Fielding's writing, and Fielding often utilizes Roland Barthes' scriptible mode of discourse, which requires the reader to adjudicate meaning.

Item Type:	Book Section
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	English and Comparative Literature > Centre for Caribbean Studies
Dates:	Date Event 2015 Published
Item ID:	16302
Date Deposited:	20 Jan 2016 13:05
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2017 15:51
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/16302

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