| The subject of this dissertation is the intertexuality of American law and letters regarding race in the post-Reconstruction and pre World War I era. Specifically it looks at the way in which imaginative American literature written in opposition to the institutionalization of Jim Crow and other racially stigmatizing laws issued critiques against such racialist laws. The authors discussed include Charles Chesnutt, Albion Tourgee, Mark Twain, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Theodore Dreiser and Kate Chopin. This dissertation demonstrates that constitutionally based arguments, representative storylines and structural analogies are three central means by which such critiques are engaged. The dissertation is divided into 4 chapters, each covering a principle area in law and literature; the color line, property, marriage and lynching. Each chapter demonstrates several distinct ways in which a conversation exists between the laws and the literature of this time period using imaginative literature, state and federal case law, legislation and other historical documents. The thesis of the dissertation is that by examining the literary reaction to legal realities we expand our understanding of the cultural and historical moment. It enriches legal narratives and explicates popular racial metaphors and symbols. Additionally, understanding the sophisticated legal arguments embedded within these literary texts adds a useful dimension to the literary criticism that treats them. |
