Conjugality: Marriage and Marriage-like Relationships before the Law

by H. Brook

Overview

Conjugal Rites explores the legal shape of marriage as it has been determined by countless decisions concerning entry and exit into the ancient rite. Heather Brook examines the countless rules and prools governing marriage that make it valid in the eyes of the law. She argues that the various sexual performatives associated with marriage can establish, reinforce, or rupture conjugal unity while exploring the historical and politcal regulations and prohibitions marriage has faced. Brook unites past and present, public and private, to investigate the changing meanings and effects of conjugality, and challenge the way we think about sex, gender and relationships.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349537266
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	04/16/2015
Edition description:	1st ed. 2007
Pages:	257
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

HEATHER BROOK is Lecturer in Women's Studies and Sociology, Flinders University, Australia.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Propositions, Proposals

Women and Wives: Stalemate?

Sex/Gender: Husbands, Wives, Spouses

Union: Sexual Performatives

Race Trouble: Marriage and the Politics of Assimilation

Consenting Adults: Sex and Crime in Marriage

Adversarial versus No-fault Divorce

Living Together

Sex and Sexualities

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Women's studies scholar Brook . . . critically interrogates marriage and the regulation of conjugal relationships. Aptly using theoretical insights from Foucault and Butler, she offers a sharp critique of feminist discussions of marriage as a stable social institution and proposes new ways of conceptualizing marriage as a dynamic arena of regulation based on governmentality, corporeality, and performativity. Basing her study on the analysis of legal and social discourse in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Brook applies her framework in discussing historical and contemporary issues around marriage including same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and divorce . . . Overall, this is an important contribution to the field of women's studies and feminist theory, and will also be widely accessible for readers who want to learn more about changing meanings of marriage and intimate relationships. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." - CHOICE

Editorial Reviews

"Women's studies scholar Brook . . . critically interrogates marriage and the regulation of conjugal relationships. Aptly using theoretical insights from Foucault and Butler, she offers a sharp critique of feminist discussions of marriage as a stable social institution and proposes new ways of conceptualizing marriage as a dynamic arena of regulation based on governmentality, corporeality, and performativity. Basing her study on the analysis of legal and social discourse in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Brook applies her framework in discussing historical and contemporary issues around marriage including same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and divorce . . . Overall, this is an important contribution to the field of women's studies and feminist theory, and will also be widely accessible for readers who want to learn more about changing meanings of marriage and intimate relationships. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." - CHOICE

From the Publisher