000 03236cam a2200361 i 4500
999 _c104997
_d104997
001 021602937
003 UkOxU
005 20190703155356.0
008 181008s2019 nyu b 001 0 eng c
010 _a2018042782
020 _a9780231187428
_qhardback
040 _aLBSOR/DLC
_beng
_erda
_cLBSOR
_dUkOxU
_dIeDuRDS
041 1 _aeng
_hfre
082 0 0 _a305.569
_223
100 1 _aKalifa, Dominique.
_9134320
240 1 0 _aBas-fonds.
_lEnglish
245 1 0 _aVice, crime and poverty :
_bhow the Western imagination invented the underworld /
_cDominique Kalifa ; translated by Susan Emanuel.
264 1 _aNew York :
_bColumbia University Press,
_c2019
300 _axiv, 278 pages ;
_c24 cm
490 1 _aEuropean perspectives
500 _aTranslation of: Bas-fonds.
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 _aIn the den of horror -- Courts of miracles -- "Dangerous classes" -- Empire of lists -- The disguised prince -- The grand dukes' tour -- Poetic flight -- Ebbing of an imaginary -- Slow eclipse of the underworld -- Persistent shadows -- Roots of fascination.
520 _a"Prostitutes, criminals, and the sordid, dangerous places they inhabit have always been with us. Yet there has not always been an "underworld," or what the French call "les bas-fonds." This expression, which appeared in most western languages in the 19th century, reveals a new way of looking at these social ills and raises a key historical question: why did the century that gave us positivism, industry, democratization, and mass culture name--and thus reframe--its view of its social margins? This book explores this imaginary. It shows how the underworld came into being in the shattered Europe of the 19th century, born of a tradition in which biblical symbols-Sodom, Gomorrah, Babylon-intermingled with the "bad poor" of Christian lore and images of modern roguery like the Cour des Miracles. It decodes the construction of a worldview that has never ceased to fascinate us. For while it connotes things that are real-poverty, crime, and transgressions of all sorts-the "underworld" also constitutes an imaginary that expresses our fears, our anxieties, our desires. In representing the nether regions of our society-its "accursed share" so to speak-it also provides a route of symbolic and social escape. Although many of its components still exist or have been readapted to new contexts, the specific combination that arose in connection with the 19th century underworld gradually faded away in the 20th century. The welfare states established in the wake of the Second World War left very little room for it. And yet, while the contexts have changed, both the debates on issues related to the "underclass" and the images in contemporary cinema and steampunk culture reveal that the shadow of the underworld still lurks all around us"--
_cProvided by publisher.
650 0 _aUrban poor
_xHistory.
_9134321
650 0 _aMarginality, Social.
_9134322
650 0 _aCriminals
_xHistory.
_9134323
650 0 _aCriminals in literature.
_9134324
650 0 _aCrime
_xHistory.
_9134325
700 1 _aEmanuel, Susan,
_etranslator.
_9134326
830 0 _aEuropean perspectives.
_9134327
942 _2ddc
_cLEN