The Bradlaugh Case: A Reappraisal

Arnstein, Walter L.

doi:10.2307/2707628

Cited by 2 publications

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“…He was citing as a source articles from the aforementioned Anglo-India papers that included reference to the story of the tattooed lady. The Member of Parliament for Northampton (1880–1891), infamous in late Victorian Britain for championing radical causes such as atheism, birth control, and republicanism, was also popularly known as the Member for India based on his sustained interest in its political affairs (Arnstein 1957).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Story of the Tattooed Lady: Scandal and the Colonial State in British Burma

Kim¹

2012

Law soc. inq.

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This article centers on Branded Woman v. Unknown, an unusual 1889 trial that gave birth to the "ordinarily accepted significance" of Burmese tattoos. What began as a snippet of gossip from a colonial village became a scandal involving the highest echelon of Britain's metropolis. I explain why this dynamic of escalation occurred and how colonial officials in Burma utilized a courtroom to transform tenuous fictions of tattooing into a seemingly coherent fact about Burma. My argument that this process-shaped through cues from a fragmented audience of peers (rather than a single audience of subordinates)-represents the production of an elite public transcript highlights how colonial scandals worked as eventful moments for an always precarious state to reconfigure its claim to power by prompting local agents to enact expressions of certainty. It further carries implications for scholarship on symbolic state power and the construction of legal facts and public knowledge.

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confidence: 99%