<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The subject matter of this paper is the interplay of the female body, law and the technologies of “domestic” animals in the novel Burial Rites (2013), a fictionalised biography of the last woman executed in Iceland. Drawing consistent parallels between the convicted woman and animals - lambs in the “killing pen” in particular - Hannah Kent problematises long-standing human institutions and traditions such as law, death sentence, patriarchy and the (ab)use of animals. Moreover, she demonstrates that “the animal” and “the criminal” are mutually supportive socio-legal constructs realised on the bodies of sentient beings via identical technologies.</p></abstract>

The subject matter of this paper is the interplay of the female body, law and the technologies of “domestic” animals in the novel Burial Rites (2013), a fictionalised biography of the last woman executed in Iceland. Drawing consistent parallels between the convicted woman and animals - lambs in the “killing pen” in particular - Hannah Kent problematises long-standing human institutions and traditions such as law, death sentence, patriarchy and the (ab)use of animals. Moreover, she demonstrates that “the animal” and “the criminal” are mutually supportive socio-legal constructs realised on the bodies of sentient beings via identical technologies.

“Like a Lamb Ripe for Slaughter”: Female Body, Law and “Domestic” Animals in Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš Ćirila i Metodija 2, 18 000 Niš,

Gender Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The subject matter of this paper is the interplay of the female body, law and the technologies of “domestic” animals in the novel Burial Rites (2013), a...

“Like a Lamb Ripe for Slaughter”: Female Body, Law and “Domestic” Animals in Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites

Published Online: Mar 14, 2017

Page range: 74 - 90

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/genst-2017-0006

Keywords
body, human, law, nonhuman animal, woman

© by Danijela Petković

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

“Like a Lamb Ripe for Slaughter”: Female Body, Law and “Domestic” Animals in Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites

Published Online: Mar 14, 2017

Page range: 74 - 90

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/genst-2017-0006

Keywordsbody, human, law, nonhuman animal, woman

© by Danijela Petković

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
body, human, law, nonhuman animal, woman