Author Description
Literature and Justice in Mid Twentieth Century Britain: Crime and War Crimes examines how ideas about crime, criminality, and judicial procedure that had developed in a domestic context influenced the representation and understanding of war crimes trials, victims of war crimes, and war criminals in post-Second World War Britain. The representation of Belsen concentration camp and the subsequent British-run trial of its personnel are a particular focal point. Drawing on a range of source material including life-writing, journalism, and detective fiction, as well as criminological and sociological works from this period, this book explains why the fate of the Jews and other victims of the Nazis was sometimes brought starkly into focus and sometimes marginalised in public discourse at this period. What remain are glimpses of the events now called the Holocaust, but glimpses that can be as powerful and as meaningful as more direct or explicit representations.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how domestic British perceptions of crime and judicial procedure shaped the cultural and public understanding of post-Second World War trials and the Holocaust. Victoria Stewart, an expert in mid-twentieth-century British literature, utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to analyze how the nation processed the atrocities of the Nazi regime. By examining the intersection of legal discourse and literary representation, she argues that the British public's engagement with war crimes was filtered through existing frameworks of domestic criminality and social justice.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the Belsen concentration camp and the subsequent British-run trials.
- Examination of diverse source materials including life-writing, journalism, and detective fiction.
- Integration of contemporary criminological and sociological texts from the mid-twentieth century.
Scope Limits
- The study focuses specifically on the British context and does not provide a comprehensive global history of war crimes trials.
- It does not attempt to provide a definitive legal history, focusing instead on the cultural and literary representation of these events.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in the field of mid-century British studies recognize this work as a significant contribution to understanding how post-war society grappled with the Holocaust through the lens of domestic legal norms. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's meticulous synthesis of disparate literary and historical sources.
Page Count:
325
Publication Date:
2022-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192674021
ISBN-13:
9780192674029
History
Criminology
English literature
War Studies
European History
Literary Criticism
British History
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