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Vice, Crime, and Poverty : How the Western Imagination Invented the Underworld / Dominique Kalifa.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural CriticismPublisher: New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2019]Copyright date: ©2019Description: 1 online resourceContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780231187428
  • 9780231547260
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 305.569091732 23
LOC classification:
  • HV6963 .K347 2019
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- 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
Summary: 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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780231547260

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 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

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)