HENKF2204U English - Free topic D: Victorian Metropolis: Investigators and Investigations

The fictional crime detectives and the real-life social investigators of the Victorian age had much in common: the putting on of disguises, the investigation into urban ‘mysteries’, and the attempt to solve criminal or social ‘problems’. The rise of investigators and investigations in early-mid 19th century London came in response to the developing split between a respectable urban middle class and an inner city underclass; and to the making of the ‘inner colonial’ urban poor, who were often viewed as unknowable, primitive and heathen. This course explores the world of Victorian investigators and investigations to understand better the social milieu of the urban poor, the attitudes towards them, and the representations of them. The course combines history and literature in several productive ways. For instance, ee will have the opportunity to trace the development of crime fiction by examining the confessions recorded in the Newgate Calendars, which provide information on central social, political and gender-related anxieties of the age. Other sources include popular theatrical melodrama, the sensational periodical press, the archetypal detective stories featuring Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, as well as social survey reports and journalistic reportage.