Citation

Higgins EM, Swartz K. Crit. Criminol. 2018; 26(1): 91-106.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society of Criminology, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10612-017-9382-7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examines how newspaper accounts of criminality conceal and illuminate particular types of monstrosity in the postbellum United States. The paper offers an analysis of Gothicism--which typically frames the criminality of marginalized groups--as a technique of racial domination in narrative sites that construct knowledge on criminality and punishment. Analysis reveals a paradoxical lens of Gothicism in which oppressive groups can conceal monstrosity within a colonial context. The analysis of gothic accounts of criminality challenges the ways in which denial shapes modern monstrosity.

Language: en