Modern Murders

<p><em>Modern Murders</em> is the first comprehensive study of murder representations during the turn of the century drawing on previously neglected archival material to explore the intellectual cultural and artistic contexts of the period.</p><p>Most studies view the abundance of murder representations throughout the nineteenth century as an indicator of a supposedly typical Victorian appetite for sensation and melodrama. <i>Modern Murders</i> however demonstrates the turn of the century's backlash against melodramatic and sensational representations of murder and reads them as an important component in the struggles for better aesthetic standards in art and entertainment and as a dominant feature in the debates on mass culture. Through a plethora of visual and written texts representations of fictional and actual real life murders and high and popular forms of writing the volume considers the importance of murder in the elite claim to cultural authority versus its perception of plebian taste in the context of the democratization of culture.</p><p>This book will be of value to scholars and graduate students in a variety of research areas as well as general readers interested in the role of murder as a central trope in modern art and culture.</p>