The present collection of essays grew out of a conference, held in Dresden in December 2001, exploring the relationship between the public sphere and legal culture. The conference was held in connection with the ongoing research undertaken by the Sonderforschungsbereich 537 âInstitutionalisation and Historical Changeâ and, in particular, by the project âCirculation of Legal Norms and Values in British Culture from 1688 to 1900â.
The conference papers include essays on the theory of the public sphere from a systematic and historical point of view by Gert Melville, by Peter Uwe Hohendahl and by Jürgen Schlaeger, all of whom try to re-evaluate and/or improve upon Jürgen Habermasâ seminal contribution to the discussion of the emergence of modernism. Alastair Mannâs contribution investigates the situation in Scotland, particularly censorship and the oath of allegiance; Annette Pankratz focuses on the kingâs body as a site of the public sphere; Heinz-Joachim Müllenbrock looks into the widespread âculture of contentionâ at the beginning of the eighteenth century; and Eckhart Hellmuth considers the reform movement at the end of the century and the radical democratsâ insistence on the right to discuss the constitution.
Ian Bell, who took part in the conference, suggested the inclusion of part of the first chapter of his seminal study Literature and Crime in Augustan England (1991). Beth Swan, Anna-Christina Giovanopoulos, and Christoph Houswitschka respectively analyse the ideologies of justice, the interrelation between journalism and crime, and the juridical evaluation of the crime of incest and its representation in public. Greta Olson investigates keyholes as liminal spaces between the public and the private, Juliet Wightman focuses on theatre and the bear pit, Uwe Böker examines the court room and prison as public sites of discourse, and York-Gothart Mix discusses the German emigrant culture in North America.
Gert MELVILLE: Institutions and the Public Sphere: Some Preliminary Remarks
Peter Uwe HOHENDAHL: The Theory of the Public Sphere Revisited
Jürgen SCHLAEGER: A Reckoning without the Host: Public and Private Spheres in the Eighteenth Century
Uwe BÃKER: Institutionalised Rules of Discourse and the Court Room as a Site of the Public Sphere
Juliet H. WIGHTMAN: âAll the world is but a bear-baitingâ âViolence and Popular Culture in the Renaissance
Alastair MANN: Parliaments, Princes, and Presses: Voices of Tradition and Protest in Early Modern Scotland
Annette PANKRATZ: Over the Kingâs Bodies: The Emerging Public Sphere in Seventeenth-Century England
Heinz-Joachim MÃLLENBROCK: Public Opinion in Eighteenth-Century England
Ian A. BELL: Literature, Crime, and Society in Eighteenth-Century England
Beth SWAN: Defoe and the Criminal Lawyer: Eighteenth Century Ideologies of Justice
Greta OLSON: Keyholes in Eighteenth-Century Novels as Liminal Spaces between the Public and Private Spheres
Christoph HOUSWITSCHKA: Family, Crime, and the Public Sphere: âIncestâ in Eighteenth-Century England
Anna-Christina GIOVANOPOULOS: Alsatian Eccentricities: An Initial Appraisal of a Nineteenth-Century Collection of Eighteenth-Century News on Crime
Eckhart HELLMUTH: Criticising the Constitution: or, How to Talk about the Liberty of the Press in the 1790s
Uwe BÃKER: The Prison and the Penitentiary as Sites of Public Counter-Discourse
York-Gothart MIX: âUbi libertas, ibi patriaâ: The Interculturality of German-American Popular Almanacs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.