Research Catalog

Title

Vice, crime and poverty : how the Western imagination invented the underworld / Dominique Kalifa ; translated by Susan Emanuel, foreword by Sarah Maza.

Author

Kalifa, Dominique

Publication

New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Emanuel, Susan

Description

xiv, 278 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

"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"--

Series Statement

European perspectives

Uniform Title

• Bas-fonds. English
• European perspectives.

Alternative Title

Bas-fonds.

Subjects

• Urban poor
• Marginality, Social
• Deviant behavior in literature
• Urban poor > History
• Inner cities in literature
• Marginality, Social, in literature
• Crime > History
• History
• Social representations
• Inner cities > History
• Criminals in literature
• Criminals > History

Genre/Form

History.

Note

• Translation of: Bas-fonds.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language (note)

• Translated from the French.

Contents

1. The advent of the lower depths. In the den of horror ; Courts of miracles ; "Dangerous classes" -- 2. Scenarios of society's underside. Empire of lists ; The disguised prince ; The grand dukes' tour ; Poetic flight -- 3. Ebbing of an imaginary. Slow eclipse of the underworld ; Persistent shadows ; Roots of fascination.

Call Number

JFE 19-8942

ISBN

• 9780231187428
• 0231187424

LCCN

2018042782

OCLC

1056742065

Author

Kalifa, Dominique, author.

Title

Vice, crime and poverty : how the Western imagination invented the underworld / Dominique Kalifa ; translated by Susan Emanuel, foreword by Sarah Maza.

Publisher

New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

European perspectives

European perspectives.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Language

Translated from the French.

Added Author

Emanuel, Susan, translator.

Translation Of:

Kalifa, Dominique. Bas-fonds. Paris : Seuil, 2013 9782020967624 (DLC) 2013361599 (OCoLC)827230441

Other Form:

Online version: Kalifa, Dominique. Vice, crime and poverty. New York : Columbia University Press, [2019] 9780231547260 (DLC) 2018051325

Research Call Number

JFE 19-8942