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16 Int'l J. Semiotics L. 1 (2003)

handle is hein.journals/intjsemi16 and id is 1 raw text is: PAUL ROBERTSHAW SENTENCING PARRICIDES: TEXT AND CONTEXT; RHETORIC AND SILENCE ABSTRACT. This article considers the sentencing of two eighteenth century parricides, one committed by a daughter, the other by a son. In each case the sentencing remarks are first subject to generic analysis, derived from the work of Rukiya Hasan and Susan Urmston Philips. Within those thematic structures there is a traditional rhetorical analysis. By combining both types of analysis one can demonstrate the salient features of each set of judicial remarks. The focus of the article then shifts from these texts to their contexts, and reveals features in their offence narratives which have been omitted in these otherwise powerful rhetorical utterances. Explanations for these silences are given. 1. INTRODUCTION The two eighteenth century cases from the English Shire of Oxford that are discussed here share the rare horror of breaching two of the Biblical Commandments: as parricides they offend both the Commandment to Honour thy father and mother as well as that Thou shalt not kill. Beyond those stark commonalities they differ considerably. In previous work on the cases of Mary Blandy, State Trials 523 (1752) and Robert Hitch- cock, 4/3/1778 Bodleian Law Library Collection Oxford University, the analysis was restricted to their sentencing remarks. There were two reasons for this. First was practicality, since they were two of several hundreds of cases from 1300 to the present day that were under consideration, so to have deviated from this particular legal genre to their wider context would have undermined that project. The other reason lies within the theory of literary criticism, that the text should be taken as an autonomous entity and not clogged up or obfuscated with extraneous background or biograph- ical material. In this article the first practicality is absent, and the second will retain a privileged place since the context of the two parricides will follow the textual analyses. These exercises in contextualisation allow one to suggest a paradox, that the striking rhetorical power of both sets of judi- cial sentencing remarks, masked significant silences on what could not be uttered to a general public in these moments of hegemonising monologue. 1 There is another copy in the British Library but it is incomplete because of World War II bomb damage. L International Journal for the Semiotics of Law Y Revue Internationale de Semiotique Juridique 16: 1-14, 2003. © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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