Overview
- TOPIC RECEIVING INCREASED ATTENTION: Samesex marriage is a topic receiving a huge amount of attention in this country right now, and will not disappear from the agenda anytime soon.
- MULTIPLE MARKETS: Will appeal to scholars and students in both sociology and women's studies, and possibly a small subsection of politics and law.
- UNIQUE APPROACH: Brook looks at the similarities and differences in a wide variety of intimate relationships (marriage, same sex partnerships, de facto relationships, domestic relationships), something which has not been done before.
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
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 protocols 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.
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
"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
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Conjugality
Book Subtitle: Marriage and Marriage-like Relationships before the Law
Authors: Heather Brook
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137480910
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4039-7656-7Published: 01 February 2008
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-53726-6Published: 16 April 2015
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-60937-2Published: 18 January 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 257
Topics: Family, Gender Studies, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Sociology, general, Cultural Studies