Kalifa Vice, Crime, and Poverty

How the Western Imagination Invented the Underworld
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-0-231-54726-0
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten

Reihe: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

Beggars, outcasts, urchins, waifs, prostitutes, criminals, convicts, madmen, fallen women, lunatics, degenerates—part reality, part fantasy, these are the grotesque faces that populate the underworld, the dark inverse of our everyday world. Lurking in the mirror that we hold up to our society, they are our counterparts and our doubles, repelling us and yet offering the tantalizing promise of escape. Although these images testify to undeniable social realities, the sordid lower depths make up a symbolic and social imaginary that reflects our fears and anxieties—as well as our desires.

In Vice, Crime, and Poverty, Dominique Kalifa traces the untold history of the concept of the underworld and its representations in popular culture. He examines how the myth of the lower depths came into being in nineteenth-century Europe, as biblical figures and Christian traditions were adapted for a world turned upside-down by the era of industrialization, democratization, and mass culture. From the Parisian demimonde to Victorian squalor, from the slums of New York to the sewers of Buenos Aires, Kalifa deciphers the making of an image that has cast an enduring spell on its audience. While the social conditions that created that underworld have changed, Vice, Crime, and Poverty shows that, from social-scientific ideas of the underclass to contemporary cinema and steampunk culture, its shadows continue to haunt us.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kalifa, Dominique

Weitere Mitwirkende

Maza, Sarah

Emanuel, Susan

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Wohnen & Obdachlosigkeit
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziale Ungleichheit, Armut, Rassismus
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Prostitution und Sexindustrie: Soziale & Ethische Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Part I: The Advent of the Lower Depths
1. In the Den of Horror
2. Courts of Miracles
3. “Dangerous Classes”
Part II: Scenarios of Society’s Underside
4. Empire of Lists
5. The Disguised Prince
6. The Grand Dukes’ Tour
7. Poetic Flight
Part III: Ebbing of an Imaginary
8. Slow Eclipse of the Underworld
9. Persistent Shadows
10. Roots of Fascination
Conclusion
Notes
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kalifa Dominique :

Dominique Kalifa is professor of History at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. He is a specialist of the history of crime, social control, and mass culture in 19th and early 20th France and Europe. He is the author of several books including L’Encre et le sang. Récits de crimes et société à la Belle Époque (Fayard, 1995), Crime et culture au XIXe siècle (Perrin, 2005), and Les Bas-fonds. Histoire d’un imaginaire (Seuil, 2013).Dominique Kalifa is professor of history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon–Sorbonne, where he is the director of the Center for Nineteenth-Century History. His many books include La véritable histoire de la “Belle Époque” (2017).