Lisa Downing
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226003405
- eISBN:
- 9780226003689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226003689.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter analyzes some modern assumptions about sexuality, gender, class, race, and civilization that led to the production of the subject of the “lust murderer” or “sex killer,” of which Jack ...
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This chapter analyzes some modern assumptions about sexuality, gender, class, race, and civilization that led to the production of the subject of the “lust murderer” or “sex killer,” of which Jack the Ripper is the exemplum, in a series of discursive fields. The ways in which nineteenth-century European medicine and sexual science figured male and female sexuality, and “specified as an individual” the murdering sexual pervert, is examined in the first section. The second considers a near contemporary French response to the Ripper case and to Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, and examines Zola's novel La Bete humaine, a work that functions as a fictional version of sexological and criminological discourse. The third section considers how Jack the Ripper provided the template for representing other sex-motivated multiple killers of both men and women that came after him.Less
This chapter analyzes some modern assumptions about sexuality, gender, class, race, and civilization that led to the production of the subject of the “lust murderer” or “sex killer,” of which Jack the Ripper is the exemplum, in a series of discursive fields. The ways in which nineteenth-century European medicine and sexual science figured male and female sexuality, and “specified as an individual” the murdering sexual pervert, is examined in the first section. The second considers a near contemporary French response to the Ripper case and to Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, and examines Zola's novel La Bete humaine, a work that functions as a fictional version of sexological and criminological discourse. The third section considers how Jack the Ripper provided the template for representing other sex-motivated multiple killers of both men and women that came after him.
L. Perry Curtis Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300088724
- eISBN:
- 9780300133691
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300088724.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Press coverage of the 1888 mutilation murders attributed to Jack the Ripper was, of necessity, filled with gaps and silences, for the killer remained unknown, and Victorian journalists had little ...
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Press coverage of the 1888 mutilation murders attributed to Jack the Ripper was, of necessity, filled with gaps and silences, for the killer remained unknown, and Victorian journalists had little experience reporting serial murders and sex crimes. This book examines how fifteen London newspapers—dailies and weeklies, highbrow and lowbrow—presented the Ripper news, in the process revealing much about the social, political, and sexual anxieties of late Victorian Britain and the role of journalists in reinforcing social norms. It surveys the mass newspaper culture of the era, delving into the nature of sensationalism and the conventions of domestic murder news. Analyzing the fifteen newspapers—several of which emanated from the East End, where the murders took place—the book shows how journalists played on the fears of readers about law and order by dwelling on lethal violence rather than sex, offering gruesome details about knife injuries but often withholding some of the more intimate details of the pelvic mutilations. It also considers how the Ripper news affected public perceptions of social conditions in Whitechapel.Less
Press coverage of the 1888 mutilation murders attributed to Jack the Ripper was, of necessity, filled with gaps and silences, for the killer remained unknown, and Victorian journalists had little experience reporting serial murders and sex crimes. This book examines how fifteen London newspapers—dailies and weeklies, highbrow and lowbrow—presented the Ripper news, in the process revealing much about the social, political, and sexual anxieties of late Victorian Britain and the role of journalists in reinforcing social norms. It surveys the mass newspaper culture of the era, delving into the nature of sensationalism and the conventions of domestic murder news. Analyzing the fifteen newspapers—several of which emanated from the East End, where the murders took place—the book shows how journalists played on the fears of readers about law and order by dwelling on lethal violence rather than sex, offering gruesome details about knife injuries but often withholding some of the more intimate details of the pelvic mutilations. It also considers how the Ripper news affected public perceptions of social conditions in Whitechapel.
Joe Nickell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125343
- eISBN:
- 9780813135229
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125343.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter explores the authentication of the purported diary of one of the world's most maniacal serial killers — Jack the Ripper. It begins by discussing his murders and the condition of the ...
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This chapter explores the authentication of the purported diary of one of the world's most maniacal serial killers — Jack the Ripper. It begins by discussing his murders and the condition of the bodies found after the murder. More than a century after the slayings, a Liverpool scrap metal dealer named Mike Barrett allegedly came into possession of a remarkable diary, that if genuine, solved the gruesome mystery. The diary's author named James Maybrick, was a fifty-year-old cotton merchant from Liverpool, died of poison in 1889. Entries in the diary explained how Maybrick, seeking revenge on his unfaithful wife, committed the murders in drug-induced frenzies. This chapter also details the investigation made to prove the authenticity of the diary. It shows all the elements found in the diary are symptomatic of an amateurish forgery, indicating it is a hoax.Less
This chapter explores the authentication of the purported diary of one of the world's most maniacal serial killers — Jack the Ripper. It begins by discussing his murders and the condition of the bodies found after the murder. More than a century after the slayings, a Liverpool scrap metal dealer named Mike Barrett allegedly came into possession of a remarkable diary, that if genuine, solved the gruesome mystery. The diary's author named James Maybrick, was a fifty-year-old cotton merchant from Liverpool, died of poison in 1889. Entries in the diary explained how Maybrick, seeking revenge on his unfaithful wife, committed the murders in drug-induced frenzies. This chapter also details the investigation made to prove the authenticity of the diary. It shows all the elements found in the diary are symptomatic of an amateurish forgery, indicating it is a hoax.
Vike Martina Plock
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034232
- eISBN:
- 9780813038803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034232.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In “Penelope,” James Joyce uses a controversial debate on women's so-called diseases as a provocative intertext for the representation of Molly Bloom's sexuality. Her recollection of a gynecological ...
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In “Penelope,” James Joyce uses a controversial debate on women's so-called diseases as a provocative intertext for the representation of Molly Bloom's sexuality. Her recollection of a gynecological visit, which took place in 1888, responds explicitly to the complex turn-of-the-century discourse that related womanhood, pathology, and social politics. Further, it recalls fin-de-siècle fears about medical abuse that were most sensationally captured in the image of Jack the Ripper. While doctors multiplied the number of surgical operations performed on women's anesthetized bodies, feminists and antivivisectionists ferociously condemned both the ideological foundation for and the consequences of the mutilations resulting from doctors' surgical interventions. Surprisingly, though, as “Penelope” reveals, the argument about women's social inferiority that the biological model had established received support by another, much more subtle medical interventionism. Patent medicine forms an equally central medical subtext in “Penelope”.Less
In “Penelope,” James Joyce uses a controversial debate on women's so-called diseases as a provocative intertext for the representation of Molly Bloom's sexuality. Her recollection of a gynecological visit, which took place in 1888, responds explicitly to the complex turn-of-the-century discourse that related womanhood, pathology, and social politics. Further, it recalls fin-de-siècle fears about medical abuse that were most sensationally captured in the image of Jack the Ripper. While doctors multiplied the number of surgical operations performed on women's anesthetized bodies, feminists and antivivisectionists ferociously condemned both the ideological foundation for and the consequences of the mutilations resulting from doctors' surgical interventions. Surprisingly, though, as “Penelope” reveals, the argument about women's social inferiority that the biological model had established received support by another, much more subtle medical interventionism. Patent medicine forms an equally central medical subtext in “Penelope”.
François Recanati
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199659982
- eISBN:
- 9780191745409
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659982.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language
Sometimes an object is known only by description, yet the subject opens a file for it in anticipation (‘Jack the Ripper’, ‘Neptune’). Appearances notwithstanding, this does not argue against the view ...
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Sometimes an object is known only by description, yet the subject opens a file for it in anticipation (‘Jack the Ripper’, ‘Neptune’). Appearances notwithstanding, this does not argue against the view put forth in previous chapters. The claim that mental files require a suitable acquaintance relation to the reference is a normative claim, distinct from the factual claim that there is no mental file tokening without some acquaintance relation to the referent.Less
Sometimes an object is known only by description, yet the subject opens a file for it in anticipation (‘Jack the Ripper’, ‘Neptune’). Appearances notwithstanding, this does not argue against the view put forth in previous chapters. The claim that mental files require a suitable acquaintance relation to the reference is a normative claim, distinct from the factual claim that there is no mental file tokening without some acquaintance relation to the referent.
Brian Baker
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719069048
- eISBN:
- 9781781700891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719069048.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines Sinclair's first novel, White Chappell. It shows that this novel drew upon the events of the autumn of 1888, namely the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ of Jack the Ripper, and even some ...
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This chapter examines Sinclair's first novel, White Chappell. It shows that this novel drew upon the events of the autumn of 1888, namely the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ of Jack the Ripper, and even some popular literary novels (A Study in Scarlet and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). From there the discussion focuses on the concept of temporal co-presence and multi-presence, and looks at how Sinclair uses the metaphysic of topographic presence to emphasize the mythic constructions of his narrative. This chapter also considers the ‘haunted’ nature of books and the dissection and division of human bodies.Less
This chapter examines Sinclair's first novel, White Chappell. It shows that this novel drew upon the events of the autumn of 1888, namely the ‘Whitechapel Murders’ of Jack the Ripper, and even some popular literary novels (A Study in Scarlet and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). From there the discussion focuses on the concept of temporal co-presence and multi-presence, and looks at how Sinclair uses the metaphysic of topographic presence to emphasize the mythic constructions of his narrative. This chapter also considers the ‘haunted’ nature of books and the dissection and division of human bodies.
Nick Freeman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526124340
- eISBN:
- 9781526136206
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526124340.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Focusing largely on short stories of the 1890s and 1900s, this essay examines Richard Marsh's many similarities and connections with late-Victorian newspapers, particularly the tabloid press typified ...
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Focusing largely on short stories of the 1890s and 1900s, this essay examines Richard Marsh's many similarities and connections with late-Victorian newspapers, particularly the tabloid press typified by George Purkess's Illustrated Police News. It argues that Marsh used the direct and accessible language of popular journalism to clothe his outlandish sensation fiction in the trappings of believability, while at the same time exploiting the literary possibilities of the news itself, notably in his responses to the infamous Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel in 1888 in stories such as 'The adventure of the phonograph' (Curios, 1898) and 'A member of the Anti-Tobacco League' (Under One Flag, 1906).Less
Focusing largely on short stories of the 1890s and 1900s, this essay examines Richard Marsh's many similarities and connections with late-Victorian newspapers, particularly the tabloid press typified by George Purkess's Illustrated Police News. It argues that Marsh used the direct and accessible language of popular journalism to clothe his outlandish sensation fiction in the trappings of believability, while at the same time exploiting the literary possibilities of the news itself, notably in his responses to the infamous Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel in 1888 in stories such as 'The adventure of the phonograph' (Curios, 1898) and 'A member of the Anti-Tobacco League' (Under One Flag, 1906).
Nicholas Freeman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640560
- eISBN:
- 9780748651399
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640560.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Oscar Wilde's disastrous libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry dominated British newspapers during the spring of 1895. This book shows that the Wilde scandal was just one of many events to ...
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Oscar Wilde's disastrous libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry dominated British newspapers during the spring of 1895. This book shows that the Wilde scandal was just one of many events to capture the public's imagination that year. Had Jack the Ripper returned? Did the Prime Minister have a dreadful secret? Were Aubrey Beardsley's drawings corrupting the nation? Were overpaid foreign players ruining English football? Could cricket save a nation from moral ruin? Freak weather, flu, a General Election, industrial unrest, New Women, fraud, accidents, anarchists, balloons and bicycles all stirred up interest and alarm. The book shows how this turbulent year is at the same time far removed from our own day and strangely familiar. It interweaves literature, politics and historical biography with topics such as crime, the weather, sport, visual art and journalism to give an overarching view of everyday life in 1895. The book draws on diverse primary sources, from the Aberdeen Weekly Journal to the Women's Signal Budget, and from the Illustrated Police News to The Yellow Book; and is illustrated with stills from plays and reproductions of newspaper front pages, to bring Victorian culture to life.Less
Oscar Wilde's disastrous libel suit against the Marquess of Queensberry dominated British newspapers during the spring of 1895. This book shows that the Wilde scandal was just one of many events to capture the public's imagination that year. Had Jack the Ripper returned? Did the Prime Minister have a dreadful secret? Were Aubrey Beardsley's drawings corrupting the nation? Were overpaid foreign players ruining English football? Could cricket save a nation from moral ruin? Freak weather, flu, a General Election, industrial unrest, New Women, fraud, accidents, anarchists, balloons and bicycles all stirred up interest and alarm. The book shows how this turbulent year is at the same time far removed from our own day and strangely familiar. It interweaves literature, politics and historical biography with topics such as crime, the weather, sport, visual art and journalism to give an overarching view of everyday life in 1895. The book draws on diverse primary sources, from the Aberdeen Weekly Journal to the Women's Signal Budget, and from the Illustrated Police News to The Yellow Book; and is illustrated with stills from plays and reproductions of newspaper front pages, to bring Victorian culture to life.
Sophie Duncan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198790846
- eISBN:
- 9780191833298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198790846.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter centres on Terry’s ‘divinely beautiful’ but controversial 1888 Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum theatre. Terry performed amidst hysteria over the Ripper killings and profound anxiety over the ...
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This chapter centres on Terry’s ‘divinely beautiful’ but controversial 1888 Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum theatre. Terry performed amidst hysteria over the Ripper killings and profound anxiety over the cognitive dissonance created by seeing a ‘good’ actress play a ‘bad’ woman. The results showed that a Shakespearean queen could interrogate the institution of marriage as fiercely as any fin-de-siècle problem play, with Terry’s underlying thesis stating that being a ‘good’ wife sometimes necessitated being a ‘bad’ woman. The chapter reassesses scholarly accounts of Terry’s ‘failure’ in the role via a thorough re-reading of fin-de-siècle periodicals’ anticipatory criticism and first-night reviews. It also examines the performance afterlives including Jess Dorynne’s The True Ophelia.Less
This chapter centres on Terry’s ‘divinely beautiful’ but controversial 1888 Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum theatre. Terry performed amidst hysteria over the Ripper killings and profound anxiety over the cognitive dissonance created by seeing a ‘good’ actress play a ‘bad’ woman. The results showed that a Shakespearean queen could interrogate the institution of marriage as fiercely as any fin-de-siècle problem play, with Terry’s underlying thesis stating that being a ‘good’ wife sometimes necessitated being a ‘bad’ woman. The chapter reassesses scholarly accounts of Terry’s ‘failure’ in the role via a thorough re-reading of fin-de-siècle periodicals’ anticipatory criticism and first-night reviews. It also examines the performance afterlives including Jess Dorynne’s The True Ophelia.
