The criminal spectre in law, literature and aesthetics : incriminating subjects / Peter J. Hutchings.

  • Hutchings, Peter (Peter J.)
Date:
2001
  • Books

About this work

Description

"The nineteenth century was haunted by crime, by its signs, stories and the shapes of institutions designed for its regulation. That haunting persists today in a popular fear of crime that shapes political agendas, and through images presented in the media. This book analyses the legal and aesthetic discourses that combine to shape the image of the criminal, and that image's contemporary endurance." "Peter Hutchings examines a variety of texts, from literature, photography, cinema and law, and draws material from a spectrum of disciplines. He maps the evolution of the criminal spectre through the discourses of phrenology, criminology, anthropometry and psychology, and traces this spectre in the law of criminal responsibility and forensic evidentiary techniques. Emerging from these investigations is an important theoretical framework concerning formations of subjectivity that builds on Foucault, Derrida and Walter Benjamin." "This book will be of essential interest to sociologists, psychologists, cultural historians, criminologists and those working in the field of legal studies."--Jacket.

Publication/Creation

London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2001.

Physical description

xiii, 219 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-211) and index.

Contents

1. Introduction: "this subject of ghosts" -- 2. Spectacularizing crime, ghostwriting the law -- 3. Mad, murderous and dangerous to know -- 4. The feminine phantom: women, crime and fantasy -- 5. Modern forensics: photography and other suspects -- 6. The genius of crime.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    JQP.AI
    Open shelves

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 0415236061
  • 9780415236065