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Collecting criminal (stereo-)types : eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as anthologies

(2017) GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS. 70(1). p.115-136
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Abstract
Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, editors who collected famous and remarkable legal (and especially criminal) cases focused on publishing selections from, and adaptations of, Gayot de Pitaval’s (1734–41) and Richer’s (1771–81) 'Causes célèbres et intéressantes', rather than on introducing new ‘causes célèbres’. The following investigates this tendency to fall back on Pitaval’s body of cases by comparing and contrasting two of the later, and most important, German collections of ʻcauses célèbresʼ: the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' (1792–5) and 'Der neue Pitaval' (1842–90). First, this article analyses these collections from a macro perspective, reading them as anthologies: selective compilations of ʻcauses célèbresʼ which promote a canon that is representative of the topic of the collection, and which include cases in order to support an overarching concept and popularise political Enlightenment knowledge. Although the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' and 'Der neue Pitaval' make a similar selection of ʻcauses célèbresʼ, the contexts of the anthologies give them very different meanings. The second part of this paper illustrates this point by examining the differing conceptions of the female poisoner (‘Giftmischerin’) in the two collections. It demonstrates the contrast between the creation of stereotypes in the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' and a differentiated typology in 'Der neue Pitaval'. Rather than defining the criminal from a legal point of view by a number of universalised and reductive insights regarding the offence, the nineteenth-century ʻcauses célèbresʼ adopt a disciplinary perspective. More specifically, they contribute to the study of the human being by identifying a number of categories by which to make sense of the development of the criminal throughout his or her entire life.
Keywords
Causes célèbres, Anthologies, Cultural memory, Female poisoner ('Giftmischerin')

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MLA
De Doncker, Jules. “Collecting Criminal (Stereo-)Types : Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as Anthologies.” GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, vol. 70, no. 1, 2017, pp. 115–36, doi:10.1111/glal.12142.
APA
De Doncker, J. (2017). Collecting criminal (stereo-)types : eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as anthologies. GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, 70(1), 115–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12142
Chicago author-date
De Doncker, Jules. 2017. “Collecting Criminal (Stereo-)Types : Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as Anthologies.” GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS 70 (1): 115–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12142.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
De Doncker, Jules. 2017. “Collecting Criminal (Stereo-)Types : Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as Anthologies.” GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS 70 (1): 115–136. doi:10.1111/glal.12142.
Vancouver
1.
De Doncker J. Collecting criminal (stereo-)types : eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as anthologies. GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS. 2017;70(1):115–36.
IEEE
[1]
J. De Doncker, “Collecting criminal (stereo-)types : eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as anthologies,” GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 115–136, 2017.
@article{8110907,
  abstract     = {{Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, editors who collected famous and remarkable legal (and especially criminal) cases focused on publishing selections from, and adaptations of, Gayot de Pitaval’s (1734–41) and Richer’s (1771–81) 'Causes célèbres et intéressantes', rather than on introducing new ‘causes célèbres’. The following investigates this tendency to fall back on Pitaval’s body of cases by comparing and contrasting two of the later, and most important, German collections of ʻcauses célèbresʼ: the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' (1792–5) and 'Der neue Pitaval' (1842–90). First, this article analyses these collections from a macro perspective, reading them as anthologies: selective compilations of ʻcauses célèbresʼ which promote a canon that is representative of the topic of the collection, and which include cases in order to support an overarching concept and popularise political Enlightenment knowledge. Although the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' and 'Der neue Pitaval' make a similar selection of ʻcauses célèbresʼ, the contexts of the
anthologies give them very different meanings. The second part of this paper illustrates this point by examining the differing conceptions of the female poisoner (‘Giftmischerin’) in the two collections. It demonstrates the contrast between the creation of stereotypes in the 'Merkwürdige Rechtsfälle' and a differentiated typology in 'Der neue Pitaval'. Rather than defining the criminal from a legal point of view by a number of universalised and reductive insights regarding the offence, the nineteenth-century ʻcauses célèbresʼ adopt a disciplinary perspective. More specifically, they contribute to the study of the human being by identifying a number of categories by which to make sense of the development of the criminal throughout his or her entire life.}},
  author       = {{De Doncker, Jules}},
  issn         = {{0016-8777}},
  journal      = {{GERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS}},
  keywords     = {{Causes célèbres,Anthologies,Cultural memory,Female poisoner ('Giftmischerin')}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{115--136}},
  title        = {{Collecting criminal (stereo-)types : eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ʻCauses Célèbresʼ as anthologies}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1111/glal.12142}},
  volume       = {{70}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}

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