Literature and Crime in Augustan EnglandRoutledge, 2020 M01 8 - 260 pages Eighteenth-century England saw an explosion of writings about deviance. In literature, in the law, and in the press, writers returned again and again to the question of crime and criminals. While the extension of the legal system formalised the power of the state to categorise and punish ‘deviance’, writers repeatedly confronted the problematic nature of legal authority and the unstable idea of ‘the criminal’. Some of this commentary was supportive, some was subversive and resistant, uncovering the complexity of issues the law sought to ignore. Originally published in 1991, Ian Bell’s masterly investigation of the diverse representations of crime and legality in the Augustan period ranges widely across the contemporary press, involving court reports, philosophical writings, periodicals, biographies, pornography and polemics. Re-assessing the canonical texts of eighteenth-century ‘Literature’, Bell situates the work of Defoe, Hogarth, Gay, Swift, Pope, Richardson and Fielding in its social and political context. |
From inside the book
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... looks relatively uncontroversial, but still requires some preliminary definition. It would certainly be quite possible to write about this topic from within the traditional 'Eng. Lit.' perspective of the magical and universal powers of ...
... looks as though he is having to confront a discourse which violates those ideals of gentlemanly conduct which the ... look like the flagrant exercise of power and violence to secure rights and property for a few. Of course, that was not ...
... looks as though it was possible to present the institution of law as the public formalisation of a gentlemanly code of good practice, motivated largely by 'natural humanity', as Blackstone does. On the other hand, and with more ...
... look persuasive. In 1718, the City Marshal of London announced: Now it is the general complaint of the taverns, the coffeehouses, the shop-keepers and others, that their customers are afraid when it is dark to come to their houses and ...
... look? At the risk of provoking hoots of scornful mirth from certain historians, I wish to suggest that suitable sources for the study of crime during this period might be found in the contemporary press. Whatever else may be said of ...
Contents
Representing the criminal | |
The harlots progress | |
Satires rough music | |
Fielding and the discipline of fiction | |
Buttock and File | |
Other editions - View all
Literature and Crime in Augustan England Ian a Bell,Taylor & Francis Group No preview available - 2022 |