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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... seems remarkably untroubled by anxiety or apprehension, and encourages his prosperous listeners to have faith in the law, which is designed to support and maintain their cultural dominance. In doing so, he demonstrates the ideological ...
... seems assured that 'the criminal law of England has always been sensitive to the needs and aspirations of the English people',7 more recent commentators have seen the evolution of the criminal code as reflecting the needs and ...
... seem to have been strongly felt by many, and they are articulated again and again by contemporary commentators, often ... seems (tho' already become so flagrant) not yet to have arrived to that Height of which it is capable, and which it ...
... and whose existence was fostered by the absence of an efficient police-system, the ill-lighted streets, and the horrible rookeries full of brothels'.18 This very lurid picture seems to hold a peculiar appeal for historians, who mostly lead.
... seems to have been very effective in maintaining belief in the necessity of the 'Bloody Code'. But was it in any way justified? Despite its obviousness, any such question is remarkably difficult to answer. Alongside the prurient ...
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 |