Monstrous semantics: The case of the criminal diaries

Title: Monstrous semantics: The case of the criminal diaries
Creator: Morrissey, Belinda
Date: 2010
Type: Text; Journal article
Identifier: http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/76298
Identifier: vital:7509
Identifier: ISSN:0816-4649
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2010.50429
Abstract: This article investigates the usage of a diary as a transparent truth device in legal proceedings. I argue that this usage assays a very naı¨ve notion, perpetrated by the prosecution, that truth is self-evident when written by the hand of the defendant. Moreover, and more importantly, this approach demands that words have only one meaning, that semantics and context don’t matter, and that broader, overarching themes are unimportant, even when only very brief quotations, selected out of eight years’ worth of entries are used. The diary, itself, is effectively prosecuted here; it becomes the ‘monstrous’ criminal, yet at all times, a mere synecdoche for the ‘real’ monster herself.
Relation: Australian Feminist Studies Vol. 25, no. 55 (2010), p. 295-311
Rights: Copyright Taylor & Francis
Rights: This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
Subject: 16 Studies In Human Society; Diary; Legal proceedings
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