04198nam 2200685Ia 450 991097450630332120200520144314.09780674038172067403817710.4159/9780674038172(CKB)2670000000015728(StDuBDS)AH23050724(SSID)ssj0000340660(PQKBManifestationID)11266914(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000340660(PQKBWorkID)10388798(PQKB)11099180(Au-PeEL)EBL3300770(CaPaEBR)ebr10347325(OCoLC)923115971(DE-B1597)574657(DE-B1597)9780674038172(MiAaPQ)EBC3300770(Perlego)1148396(EXLCZ)99267000000001572819980422d1998 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrMurder most foul the killer and the American Gothic imagination /Karen Halttunen1st ed.Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press19981 online resource (xiv, 322p., [32]p. of plates )ill., facsims., plan, portsBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph9780674588554 067458855X 9780674003842 0674003845 Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-312) and index.Introduction 1. The Murderer as Common Sinner 2. The Birth of Horror 3. The Pornography of Violence 4. The Construction of Murder as Mystery 5. Murder in the Family Circle 6. Murdering Medusa 7. The Murderer as Mental Alien Epilogue Notes IndexIn this text, Karen Halttunen explores the changing view of murder from early New England sermons read at the public executions, through to the true crime literature and tabloid reporting of the late 1990's.Confronting murder in the newspaper, on screen, and in sensational trials, we often feel the killer is fundamentally incomprehensible and morally alien. But this was not always the popular response to murder. In Murder Most Foul , Karen Halttunen explores the changing view of murder from early New England sermons read at the public execution of murderers, through the nineteenth century, when secular and sensational accounts replaced the sacred treatment of the crime, to today's true crime literature and tabloid reports. The early narratives were shaped by a strong belief in original sin and spiritual redemption, by the idea that all murders were natural manifestations of the innate depravity of humankind. In a dramatic departure from that view, the Gothic imagination--with its central conventions of the fundamental horror and mystery of the crime--seized upon the murderer as a moral monster, separated from the normal majority by an impassable gulf. Halttunen shows how this perception helped shape the modern response to criminal transgression, mandating criminal incarceration, and informing a social-scientific model of criminal deviance. The Gothic expression of horror and inhumanity is the predominant response to radical evil today; it has provided a set of conventions surrounding tales of murder that appear to be natural and instinctive, when in fact they are rooted in the nineteenth century. Halttunen's penetrating insight into her extraordinary treasure trove of creepy popular crime literature reveals how our stories have failed to make sense of the killer and how that failure has constrained our understanding and treatment of criminality today.Gothic revival (Literature)United StatesMurder in literatureMurderUnited StatesCase studiesMurderUnited StatesHistoryGothic revival (Literature)Murder in literature.MurderMurderHistory.364.15/23/0973Halttunen Karen1951-152044MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910974506303321Murder most foul4357396UNINA