Liquid lives, wholesome selves:
Change, legal ritual and autobiographical narrative
Wednesday 25 April 2007 @ University of Westminster
A one day workshop by the AHRC Research Centre for
Law, Gender and Sexuality
The focus of this seminar is on the notion of personal
history as an ongoing narrative, the ultimate work-in-progress
which takes a lifetime to complete. Firstly, the seminar
seeks to engage with the question of how important
legal rituals are in turning events in our personal
lives into milestones which are defining of our autobiographical
narrative. To what extent are the triumphs and struggles
that make up our micro-histories stories of legal victory
and defeat? How great a factor is law in carving out
personal landmarks and transformations? How does being
excluded from liminal legal rituals (e.g. marriage)
and recognition texts (e.g. being named as parent on
a birth certificate) influence stories of selfhood?
How do personal narratives feed back into and influence
legal processes?
Secondly, the seminar pursues the question of how
personal change is culturally conceived of. One
example is the
narration of the self in makeover television programmes.
Such shows are replete with references to renewal
and change, for example, by staging 'swaps' to
re-evaluate
or 'launder' participants' lives, experimenting with
lifestyle choices, and reversing the ageing process
through surgery, dieting or a new wardrobe. 'Reveals'
and confessions are commonly used in reality TV as
a narrative device for making personal journeys into
very public events and very few details are considered
too intimate or too private. Such programmes therefore
invite reflections on the public/private divide,
the corporeal as a story of self-renewal and transformation,
regulation/freedom of expression, the gendered nature
of self-beautification, obscenity (e.g. very graphic
shots of surgery), etc.
KeyNote Speaker:Laura Beth Nielsen (American Bar Foundation and Northwestern University) ‘Law and Everyday Life on the Streets: Harms of Enacted Race and Gender Hierarchy’
Venue: University of Westminster, Regent Street building, room 215, 309 Regent Street (north of Oxford Circus tube)
The programme can be downloaded here
Download the Liquid Lives registration form here
For further information, please contact the convener,
Lieve Gies: l.gies@keele.ac.uk
