Literary Theory and Criminology demonstrates the significance of contemporary literary theory to the discipline of criminology, particularly to those criminologists who are primarily concerned with questions of power, inequality, and harm. Drawing on innovations in philosophical, narrative, cultural, and pulp criminology, it sets out a deconstructive framework as part of a critical criminological critique-praxis. This book comprises eight essays – on globalisation, criminological fiction, poststructuralism, patriarchal political economy, racial capitalism, anthropocidal ecocide, critical theory, and critical praxis – that argue for the value of contemporary literary theory to a critical criminology concerned with the construction of a just and sustainable reality in the face of climate change and other mass harms. This is the first criminology book to engage with literary theory from the perspective of criminology and provides a guide for criminologists who want to deploy literary theory as part of their research programmes. It supersedes existing engagements with poststructuralism in the philosophical criminological tradition because it entails neither a constructionist ontology nor a relativist epistemology. It shows criminologists how literary theory offers the tools to first deconstruct and then reconstruct meaning and value. Literary Theory and Criminology is essential reading for all critical criminological theorists.
This book introduces narrative justice, a new theory of aesthetic education – the thesis that the cultivation of aesthetic or artistic sensibility can both improve moral character and achieve political justice. The author argues that there is a subcategory of narrative representations that provide moral knowledge regardless of their categorisation as fiction or non-fiction, and which therefore can be employed as a means of moral improvement. McGregor applies this narrative ethics to the criminology of inhumanity, including both crimes against humanity and terrorism. Expanding on the methodology of narrative criminology, he demonstrates that narrative representations can be employed to evaluate responsibility for inhumanity, to understand the psychology of inhumanity, and to undermine inhumanity – and are thus a means to the end of opposing injustice. He concludes that the cultivation of narrative sensibility is an important tool for both moral improvement and political justice.
There is increasing pressure on the humanities to justify their value and on criminology to undertake interdisciplinary research. In this book, Rafe McGregor establishes a new interdisciplinary methodology, ‘criminological criticism’, harnessing the synergy between literary studies and critical criminology to produce genuine interventions in social reality. McGregor practices criminological criticism on George Miller’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’, Prime Video’s ‘Carnival Row’ and J.K. Rowling’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, demonstrating how these popular allegories provide insights into the harms of sexism, racism and class prejudice. This book proposes a model for collaboration between literary studies and critical criminology that is beneficial to the humanities, the social sciences and society.
Drawing on complex narratives across film, TV, novels and graphic novels, this authoritative critical analysis demonstrates the value of fictional narratives as a tool for understanding, explaining and reducing crime and social harm. McGregor establishes an original theory of the criminological value of fiction.
Transatlantic policing is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy, epitomised by public responses to the murders of George Floyd and Sarah Everard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Legitimacy is lost when the police either fail to protect the public or rely on coercion rather than consent to achieve that protection. Recovering Police Legitimacy challenges conventional criminological, political, and public solutions to the problem by approaching it from the bottom up, beginning with policing as a practice constituted by a unique set of excellences, skills, and characteristics. The author draws on his experience as a police officer and on the serial fictions of James Ellroy, David Peace, and Nic Pizzolatto to characterise the practice in terms of heroic struggle, edgework, absolute sacrifice, and worldmaking. These characteristics provide an analytic tool for revolutionising our understanding of the relations among policing as a situated practice, public protection, and police legitimacy and for identifying the different levels at which legitimacy is undermined. His conclusion is that recovery is possible but will be slow in pace and incomplete in scope. Written accessibly for students, police officers, policymakers, scholars, and anyone with an interest in police legitimacy, this is a groundbreaking study of a pressing social problem.
Major Alec Marshall VC, newly back in London, is enlisted to make inquiries into the will of the late Cecil John Rhodes, the wealthiest man in the British Empire. That same night one of the witnesses to the will, Eric Lowenstein, is found beaten to death in a seedy boardinghouse, where he was lodging under a false name.As London prepares for King Edward VII's coronation, Marshall discovers that Lowenstein harbored a deadly secret concerning not only the vast fortune Rhodes amassed, but the very future of the Empire. Marshall's investigation takes him into the dark heart of a flawed genius, and sets him on a personal journey that will change his life forever.
Roderick Langham is a retired soldier, disgraced police inspector, and reluctant occult detective. He inhabits the world of Sherlock Holmes, investigates cases with John Watson and Sebastian Moran, and is able to perceive the reality concealed by the illusion of everyday appearances. These nine stories follow Langham from his first encounter with the inexplicable in the Himalayan hills to his investigation of the wreck of the Demeter and his growing realisation that the dales, moors, and wolds which surround his Yorkshire refuge are home to an evil far older than the honeycomb of medieval monasteries and Roman ruins suggests. Praise for Rafe McGregor's The Architect of Murder: "Arthur Conan Doyle is alive and well, and writing under the name Rafe McGregor." - Tess Gerritsen "Rafe McGregor is the architect of murderously good historical fiction." - Gyles Brandreth ..".a fascinating marriage of investigative mayhem with keen attention to historical detail..." - Graham Hurley "There's some dandy police procedure...and plenty of interesting characters to carry the story along." - Bill Crider ..".an exciting read, giving a very authentic flavour of the period..." - Bernard Knight
Standing at the intersection of criminology and philosophy, this book demonstrates the ways in which mythic movies and television series can provide an understanding of actual crimes and social harms. Taking three social problems as its subjects – capitalist political economy, structural injustice, and racism – the book explores the ways in which David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–2019), and Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) offer solutions by reconceiving justice in terms of personal and collective transformation, utopian thinking, and the relationship between racism and elitism, respectively. In doing so, the authors set out a theory of understanding the world based on cinematic and televisual works of art and conclude with a template that establishes a methodology for future use. An Epistemology of Criminological Cinema is authoritative and accessible, ideal reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, criminologists, philosophers, and film, television, and literary critics with an interest in social justice and social harm.
Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #30 is back with a special fiction issue featuring 6 Sherlock Holmes stories and a Mr. Moto story! FEATURES: FROM WATSON’S NOTEBOOKS, by John H Watson ASK MRS HUDSON, by (Mrs) Martha Hudson SCREEN OF THE CRIME, by Kim Newman I’LL TAKE A PASS ON THE CURRIED MUTTON, THANK YOU, by O’Neill Curatolo BARTITSU, THE REVIVED MIXED-MARTIAL ART OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Elizabeth Crowens FICTION: THE PARIS BARGAINS, by Hal Charles THE ADVENTURE OF THE BOOBY-TRAPPED BOOTS, by Jeffrey A. Lockwood THE SIGN OF THE THREE, by MYCROFT HOLMES AND THE BLACK HEART OF LONDON, by J.G. Grimmer THE LAST COLONEL MORAN STORY, by Rafe McGregor THE PROBLEM AT THE MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, by Gary Lovisi ONE MEDIUM, WELL DONE, by Frank Emerson MR. MOTO AT MANZANAR, by George Zebrowski
Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #60 contains five stories: "The Lost Testament" by Rafe McGregor, "Turning Point" by Nicki Robson, "Yttrium, Part One" by Douglas Thompson, "Amongst the Urlap" by Andrew Peters, and "Doggerland" by Jule Owen. The wraparound cover is by Howard Watts, and the editorial answers the most urgent questions from Richard Herring's Emergency Questions. The issue also includes almost forty pages of reviews by Douglas J. Ogurek, Rafe McGregor and Stephen Theaker. They review books by Martha Wells, Lisa Tuttle, Mira Grant, Gwyneth Jones, Jim Butcher, Skottie Young, Michael Turner, plus the films Alien: Covenant, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, It Comes at Night, The Mummy, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Prometheus, and Wonder Woman, the album Humanz by Gorillaz, the tv shows Iron Fist and Legion, and a pair of events: Eastercon 2017: Innominate (or at least two days of it), and Into the Unknown, the exhibition at the Barbican.
This issue features fiction from many previous contributors to the zine, who have returned to help celebrate fifty issues and ten years of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction: Antonella Coriander, David Tallerman, Douglas J. Ogurek, Howard Phillips, Howard Watts, John Greenwood, Matthew Amundsen, Michael Wyndham Thomas, Mitchell Edgeworth, Rafe McGregor and Walt Brunston. Plus reviews from Douglas J. Ogurek, Howard Watts, Jacob Edwards and Stephen Theaker. The TQF team answer questions from the public in Ask Theaker's! Cover artist Howard Watts takes readers through his process! And there's a round-up of everything Stephen Theaker read this year but didn't have time to review!
A series of short stories follow secret agent Jackson from Boston to Oxford, Quebec City, the Italian Alps, and his final and most deadly mission four months after his premature retirement.
When a superindendent in the Security Branch is murdered, Jack Forrester is assigned to the case. Realising his new colleagues are keeping vital information from him, he sets out to catch the killer on his own, but he must make an arrest quickly - before he becomes the next police casualty.
Here, private investigator Titus Farrow is doomed by an encounter with the Chambers Scroll; Roderick Langham solves the mystery of the 'Demeter' from his armchair by the sea; a failed author goes in search of the barghest for inspiration; and a missing person case turns even nastier than blackmail.
Drawing on complex narratives across film, TV, novels and graphic novels, this authoritative critical analysis demonstrates the value of fictional narratives as a tool for understanding, explaining and reducing crime and social harm. McGregor establishes an original theory of the criminological value of fiction.
After a brief hiatus, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine is back with a new issue and a new editor. Here are tales in mystery and detection in the classic manner, with a fine selection of new stories, features, and a classic Holmes reprint. Here are: BEAUTY AND THE BEYOTCH, by Barb Goffman THE CASE OF THE COLONEL’S SUICIDE, by Rafe McGregor THE HOLMES IMPERSONATOR AND THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS, by Janice Law THE BODY IN THE BACKYARD, by Peter DiChellis THE ADVENTURE OF THE GEEK INTERPRETER, by Hal Charles CEREAL KILLING, by J.P. Seewald LAST WISH AND TESTAMENT, by V.P. Kava FROM GREEN TO RED, by Mike McHone FAILURE TO OBEY, by Rebecca K. Jones TRACE EVIDENCE, by Keith Brooke THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Features by Darrell Schweitzer, Kim Newman, and Martha Hudson. Edited by Carla Kaessinger Coupe.
Standing at the intersection of criminology and philosophy, this book demonstrates the ways in which mythic movies and television series can provide an understanding of actual crimes and social harms. Taking three social problems as its subjects – capitalist political economy, structural injustice, and racism – the book explores the ways in which David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–2019), and Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) offer solutions by reconceiving justice in terms of personal and collective transformation, utopian thinking, and the relationship between racism and elitism, respectively. In doing so, the authors set out a theory of understanding the world based on cinematic and televisual works of art and conclude with a template that establishes a methodology for future use. An Epistemology of Criminological Cinema is authoritative and accessible, ideal reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, criminologists, philosophers, and film, television, and literary critics with an interest in social justice and social harm.
Literary Theory and Criminology demonstrates the significance of contemporary literary theory to the discipline of criminology, particularly to those criminologists who are primarily concerned with questions of power, inequality, and harm. Drawing on innovations in philosophical, narrative, cultural, and pulp criminology, it sets out a deconstructive framework as part of a critical criminological critique-praxis. This book comprises eight essays – on globalisation, criminological fiction, poststructuralism, patriarchal political economy, racial capitalism, anthropocidal ecocide, critical theory, and critical praxis – that argue for the value of contemporary literary theory to a critical criminology concerned with the construction of a just and sustainable reality in the face of climate change and other mass harms. This is the first criminology book to engage with literary theory from the perspective of criminology and provides a guide for criminologists who want to deploy literary theory as part of their research programmes. It supersedes existing engagements with poststructuralism in the philosophical criminological tradition because it entails neither a constructionist ontology nor a relativist epistemology. It shows criminologists how literary theory offers the tools to first deconstruct and then reconstruct meaning and value. Literary Theory and Criminology is essential reading for all critical criminological theorists.
Establishing a new interdisciplinary methodology, ‘criminological criticism’, Rafe McGregor proposes a model for collaboration between literary studies and critical criminology that is beneficial to the humanities, the social sciences and society.
Transatlantic policing is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy, epitomised by public responses to the murders of George Floyd and Sarah Everard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Legitimacy is lost when the police either fail to protect the public or rely on coercion rather than consent to achieve that protection. Recovering Police Legitimacy challenges conventional criminological, political, and public solutions to the problem by approaching it from the bottom up, beginning with policing as a practice constituted by a unique set of excellences, skills, and characteristics. The author draws on his experience as a police officer and on the serial fictions of James Ellroy, David Peace, and Nic Pizzolatto to characterise the practice in terms of heroic struggle, edgework, absolute sacrifice, and worldmaking. These characteristics provide an analytic tool for revolutionising our understanding of the relations among policing as a situated practice, public protection, and police legitimacy and for identifying the different levels at which legitimacy is undermined. His conclusion is that recovery is possible but will be slow in pace and incomplete in scope. Written accessibly for students, police officers, policymakers, scholars, and anyone with an interest in police legitimacy, this is a groundbreaking study of a pressing social problem.
This book introduces narrative justice, a new theory of aesthetic education – the thesis that the cultivation of aesthetic or artistic sensibility can both improve moral character and achieve political justice. The author argues that there is a subcategory of narrative representations that provide moral knowledge regardless of their categorisation as fiction or non-fiction, and which therefore can be employed as a means of moral improvement. McGregor applies this narrative ethics to the criminology of inhumanity, including both crimes against humanity and terrorism. Expanding on the methodology of narrative criminology, he demonstrates that narrative representations can be employed to evaluate responsibility for inhumanity, to understand the psychology of inhumanity, and to undermine inhumanity – and are thus a means to the end of opposing injustice. He concludes that the cultivation of narrative sensibility is an important tool for both moral improvement and political justice.
Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #30 is back with a special fiction issue featuring 6 Sherlock Holmes stories and a Mr. Moto story! FEATURES: FROM WATSON’S NOTEBOOKS, by John H Watson ASK MRS HUDSON, by (Mrs) Martha Hudson SCREEN OF THE CRIME, by Kim Newman I’LL TAKE A PASS ON THE CURRIED MUTTON, THANK YOU, by O’Neill Curatolo BARTITSU, THE REVIVED MIXED-MARTIAL ART OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Elizabeth Crowens FICTION: THE PARIS BARGAINS, by Hal Charles THE ADVENTURE OF THE BOOBY-TRAPPED BOOTS, by Jeffrey A. Lockwood THE SIGN OF THE THREE, by MYCROFT HOLMES AND THE BLACK HEART OF LONDON, by J.G. Grimmer THE LAST COLONEL MORAN STORY, by Rafe McGregor THE PROBLEM AT THE MUSÉE DU LOUVRE, by Gary Lovisi ONE MEDIUM, WELL DONE, by Frank Emerson MR. MOTO AT MANZANAR, by George Zebrowski
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