Ashley, Susan A. (Author)
Bloomsbury Academic
Physical Details: 312 pp.
Language: English
As the 19th century drew to a close, France and Italy experienced an explosion of crime, vagrancy, insanity, neurosis and sexual deviance. “Misfits” in Fin-de-Siècle France and Italy examines how the raft of self-appointed experts that subsequently emerged tried to explain this aberrant behavior and the many consequences this had.Susan A. Ashley considers why these different phenomena were understood to be interchangeable versions of the same inborn defects. The book looks at why specialists in newly-minted disciplines in medicine and the social sciences, such as criminology, neurology and sexology, all claimed that biological flaws – some inherited and some arising from illness or trauma – made it impossible for these 'misfits' to adapt to modern life. Ashley then goes on to analyse the solutions these specialists proposed, often distinguishing between born deviants who belonged in asylums or prisons and 'accidental misfits' who deserved solidarity and social support through changes to laws relating to issues like poverty and unemployment.The study draws on a comprehensive examination of contemporary texts and features the work of leading authorities like Cesare Lombroso, Jean-Martin Charcot, and Théodule Ribot, as well as investigators less known now but influential at the time. The comparative aspect also interestingly shows that experts collaborated closely across national and disciplinary borders, employed similar methods and arrived at common conclusions.This is a valuable study for all social and cultural historians of France and Italy and anyone interested in knowing more about the history of medicine in modern Europe.
...MoreReview Robert A. Nye (2018) Review of "“Misfits” in Fin-de-Siècle France and Italy: Anatomies of Difference". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 209-210).
Similar Citations
Article
Louise Hide;
Joanna Bourke;
(2018)
Cultures of Harm in Institutions of Care: Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB608760318/)
Book
Liliosa Azara;
Luca Tedesco;
(2019)
La donna delinquente e la prostituta: L’eredità di Lombroso nella cultura e nella società italiane
(/isis/citation/CBB265080867/)
Chapter
Luca Tedesco;
(2019)
Un parricidio mancato. La ricezione della "Donna delinquente, la prostituta e la donna normale" in Italia tra Otto e Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB186825209/)
Chapter
Riccardo Cavallo;
(2019)
«Sposa affettuosa, madre sublime e donna delinquente». Socialismo giuridico e criminalità femminile
(/isis/citation/CBB246025070/)
Chapter
Matteo Loconsole;
(2019)
Dalla donna normale alla criminale-nata. La natura femminile nel dialogo tra Paolo Mantegazza e Cesare Lombroso
(/isis/citation/CBB244703956/)
Chapter
Liliosa Azara;
Luca Tedesco;
(2019)
La donna delinquente: teorie lombrosiane e pratiche politico-istituzionali in Italia tra Otto e Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB305262674/)
Chapter
Mary Gibson;
(2019)
Cesare Lombroso and the Gendered Prison
(/isis/citation/CBB059362876/)
Article
Bartolucci, Chiara;
Lombardo, Giovanni Pietro;
(2016)
Il metodo clinico-differenziale di Enrico Morselli tra psichiatria e psicologia
(/isis/citation/CBB966451901/)
Chapter
Annacarla Valeriano;
(2019)
«Avide dello scandalo». La devianza femminile in manicomio
(/isis/citation/CBB606589982/)
Book
Edwige Comoy Fusaro;
(2007)
La nevrosi tra medicina e letteratura
(/isis/citation/CBB385434953/)
Book
Paolo Mazzarello;
Maria Antonietta Grignani;
(2020)
Ombre nella mente: Lombroso e lo scapigliato
(/isis/citation/CBB678045184/)
Article
Williams, Elizabeth A.;
(2007)
Neuroses of the Stomach: Eating, Gender, and Psychopathology in French Medicine, 1800--1870
(/isis/citation/CBB000741717/)
Book
Jarkko Jalava;
Stephanie Griffiths;
Michael Maraun;
(2015)
The Myth of the Born Criminal: Psychopathy, Neurobiology, and the Creation of the Modern Degenerate
(/isis/citation/CBB463929920/)
Book
Courtney E. Thompson;
(2021)
An Organ of Murder: Crime, Violence, and Phrenology in Nineteenth-Century America
(/isis/citation/CBB576199907/)
Chapter
Gordon, Rae Beth;
(2004)
From Charcot to Charlot: Unconscious Imitation and Spectatorship in French Cabaret and Early Cinema
(/isis/citation/CBB000550993/)
Article
Tobias Dahlkvist;
(2015)
The Epileptic Genius: The Use of Dostoevsky as Example in the Medical Debate over the Pathology of Genius
(/isis/citation/CBB238278123/)
Book
RICARDO CAMPOS;
(2012)
El Caso Morillo: crimen, locura y subjetividad en la España de la Restauración
(/isis/citation/CBB702110167/)
Article
Sattar, Atia;
(2011)
Certain Madness: Guy de Maupassant and Hypnotism
(/isis/citation/CBB001252266/)
Article
Liborio Dibattista;
(2019)
The "Staging" of Passions by Duchenne De Boulogne (1806-1875) and Jean Martin Charcot (1825-1893)
(/isis/citation/CBB681646190/)
Chapter
Emilia Musumeci;
(2019)
La donna delinquente tra isteria e infirmitas sexus nell’immaginario giuridico e scientifico ottocentesco
(/isis/citation/CBB323779189/)
Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Journal of the History of Ideas
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
Be the first to comment!