Hist. îles britanniques

TITRE : “Crime and society in 19th-century Britain”

The study of Victorian crime and punishment is an area of research that has attracted the interest of literary scholars, social historians, legal historians, and criminologists. Crime and punishment were pressing issues for the Victorians and provoked a great number of responses from contemporaneous commentators in literature, culture, science, and politics. As a new phase of industrialisation brought immense wealth for some and abject poverty for others, and led to massive urbanisation, Victorian towns and cities in particular were afflicted by crime: without an effective system of social welfare in place, social inequality and deprivation drove women, men, and children into petty crime and more serious offences, often resulting in severe punishment ranging from incarceration via penal transportation (abolished in 1868) to capital punishment.
As the legal system itself was undergoing reform, sensational trials stimulated commentary in literature and the media. Crime and punishment were discussed in a range of literary and popular genres, poetry, and reformist writing. The “Newgate School” of fiction was accused of glamorizing crime, and the popular penny dreadfuls were feared as vehicles to corrupt public morals. There were also efforts made to establish systems of social regulation such as the new Metropolitan Police in 1829 and, after 1856, a compulsory nationwide system of uniformed law enforcement. Between 1842 and 1877, 90 prisons were built or significantly expanded in Britain and there were passionate debates among reformers about the role and function of prison. If the notion of punishment was central to the debate, rehabilitation was also part of the process, and prison reform was based on judicial, moral and social considerations. In the 1840s, many prisons adopted the separate System, and it was gradually replaced by the Silent System in the 1860s, both highly controversial systems as they were conducive to mental distress among prisoners.

This course will explore the social roots of crime in Victorian Britain and analyse the means of punishment used at the time: imprisonment, penal transportation and capital punishment. Prison reform will also be studied in detail, especially the Separate and Silent Systems. The question of criminal responsibility ( or lack thereof) will also be analysed and the specific treatment of “criminal lunatics” will be presented. The sensationalistic approach of the press towards crime  will also be scrutinised, through the emblematic cases of Jack the Ripper and Amelia Dyer, also questioning a gender-based vision of criminality. The theory of the “born criminal” (Cesare Lombroso) and its social implications at the end of the century will eventually be discussed, in relation to eugenics.

Maîtrise des bases de l’histoire sociale de la Grande-Bretagne au XIXe siècle, et plus particulièrement de l’histoire du droit, des administrations et des institutions: prisons, workhouses, asiles.

Etude de sources primaires et consolidation de la méthodologie du commentaire de texte.

Session 1 en contrôle continu. Un devoir sur table de 2 heures à mi-semestre (commentaire de texte ou dissertation) 50% + un devoir sur table de 2 heures en fin de semestre (commentaire de texte ou dissertation) 50%. La note finale pourra être  pondérée par la participation orale tout au long du semestre (préparation de textes, prise de parole, exposé etc...)

Session 1 en contrôle dérogatoire: 1 devoir écrit de 2h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Session 2 (contrôle continu et dérogatoire): 1 devoir écrit de 2h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Session 1: Continuous assessment. A 2-hour written exam at the mid-term (historical commentary on a primary source  or essay)  = 50% + a 2-hour written exam at the end of the term (historical commentary on a primary source or essay) = 50%.

The final mark may be weighted by oral participation throughout the term (preparation of oral commentaries on  primary sources, taking an active part in class, presentations, etc.)

Session 1 (one-off assessment): a two-hour written exam (historical commentary on a primary source or essay)

Session 2 (continuous and one-off assessment): a two-hour written exam (historical commentary on a primary source  or essay)

Usage de l’IA :

Dans le cadre de cet EC, l’usage de l’IA pour aider à la réalisation des travaux de contrôle continu soumis à évaluation est interdit. Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire appel à une IA générative à des fins de documentation, recherche d’idées, construction, rédaction ou édition (hors usages de recherche web augmentée, de correction orthographique et syntaxique).

anglais B2/C1 - français B2

Saisir les implicites linguistiques et culturels dans une production écrite ou orale

Mobiliser des concepts et cadres théoriques

Identifier et sélectionner avec esprit critique diverses ressources dans son domaine de spécialité pour documenter un sujet

Développer une argumentation avec esprit critique

Analyser un document en le replaçant dans son contexte historique, géographique et culturel

PRIMARY SOURCES

FRY, Elizabeth, A Quaker Life : Selected Letters and Writings, Washington, Rowman Altamira, 2005

MAYHEW, Henry, The Criminal prisons of London (1862), Cambridge University Press, 2011

STEAD, Willliam T., The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission , London:. Pall Mall Gazette, 1885

SECONDARY SOURCES

BARRET-DUCROCQ, Françoise, Pauvreté, charité et morale à Londres au XIXe siècle. Une sainte violence., Paris : PUF, 1991

CARRE, Jacques,  La Prison des pauvres. L'Expérience des workhouses en Angleterre. Paris : Editions Vendémiaire, 2016,

CHARLOT, Monica, MARX, Roland ( dir.), Londres 1851 -1901. L’ère victorienne ou le triomphe des inégalités, Paris : Editions Autrement, 1990

CHESNEY, Kellow, The Victorian Underworld, London: Penguin Books, 1970.

N.B. Plus facile à trouver en version française :  CHESNEY, Kellow, Les bas-fonds de Londres. Crime et prostitution sous le règne de Victoria, traduit de l’anglais par René Brest, Paris : éditions Tallandier, 2023

DAVIE, Neil, Tracing the Criminal. The Rise of Scientific Criminology in Britain 1860-1918, Oxford: The Bardwell Press, 2006

DAVIE, Neil, The Penitentiary Ten: the Transformation of the English Prison, 1770-1850, Oxford, The Bardwell Press, 2016

EMSLEY, Clive, Crime and society in England, 1750–1900. 4th ed. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2010

FOUCAULT, Michel, Surveiller et punir : naissance de la prison (1975), Paris : Gallimard, 1993

HALLIDAY, Stephen, Newgate. London’s Prototype of Hell, Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd, 2007

HIMMELFARB, Gertrude, Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1991

HIGGS, Michelle, Prison Life in Victorian England, Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd, 2007

KEILY, Jackie (ed.), ‎Executions: 700 Years of Public Punishment in London,  London : Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd , 2022

KING, Peter, Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840 Aggravated Forms of the Death Penalty in England,  London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

RUBENHOLD, Hallie, The Five. The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, New York: Doubleday, 2019

STEVENS, Mark, Broadmoor Revealed: Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum, Barnsley, Pen and Sword Social, 2013

STOREY, Neil R., Prisons and Prisoners in Victorian Britain, Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd, 2010

SUGDEN, Philip, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, New-York, Carroll & Graf, 2002

TAYLOR, David, Crime, policing and punishment in England, 1750–1914, New York: St. Martin’s, 1998

VAUGHAN, David J., Mad or Bad. Crime and Insanity in Victorian Britain, Barnsley, Pen and Sword History, 2017

WALKOWITZ, Judith R., City of Dreadful Delight. Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London, London: Virago Press, 1994 (first edition 1992, The University of Chicago Press)