Historical and Cultural Studies on the Representation of the East End in Nineteenth-Century English Literature and Journalism

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370296
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Osaka City University
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Takanobu 大阪市立大学, 大学院文学研究科, 教授 (20171770)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 19世紀英文学 / ジャーナリズム / ロンドン / イーストエンド / 慈善活動 / 女同士の絆 / 浮浪児 / 異人種混淆

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The East End highly attracted not only social reformers and religious figures but also novelists and journalists as "Darkest London," a hotbed of poverty and crime, from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The purpose of this research is to analyze the representation of this area in English literature and journalism through the 19th century as a whole, from the perspective of the middle and upper classes' ambivalent views. By exploring the possibilities of transgressing the boundaries of various taboos, it has been proved that the attitudes of the middle and upper classes to the area included their oppressed selves' sympathy with pollution as well as pity and fear. The "attraction of repulsion" pervading the East End caused the reality unified by a particular code of values to recover its original plurality, and brought about the effect of reviving the emotions of living to members of the central world. But, at the same time, it disclosed their hidden desires.

Free Research Field

人文学