About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

26 Crime L. & Soc. Change 1 (1997)

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc26 and id is 1 raw text is: Crime, Law & Social Change 26: 1-25, 1997. 1 @ 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Politics and ethics in cultural criminology A reading of Blanchot's The Most High CHRISTOPHER STANLEY School of Law, University of Westminster, 4 Red Lion Square, WCIR 4AR London, UK Abstract. This essay offers both a critique of the theory and practice of criminology and an alternative programme via a sketch of a cultural criminology utilising cultural and literary analysis. The first part of the essay calls for the problematisation of the issues of value and representation in the criminological project and offers a competing account of the theoretical basis of the project of criminology based upon a cultural politics of difference and the ethics of radical alterity. The second part of the essay is a demonstration of how this theoretical basis might operate in practice through a cultural criminological reading of Maurice Blanchot's novel The Most High (1948, 1996). This novel is an account of the relationship between language and transgression in a totalitarian society at the end of history. An alteration in the discursive practices of the criminological project premised upon a competing theoretical perspective suggests that criminology (specifically the relation between law and transgression, deviancy and regulation) can become an important element in explanations regarding the organisation and disorganisation of contemporary urban culture utilising the strengths of its prior application (specifically narratology) and abandoning its fear of culture. Introduction: Novel orientation It might appear strange that I use the recent publication of an English trans- lation of a French novel first published in 1948 as a point of departure in the development of an essay concerning the practices of criminology.' In part, an interpretation of this novel is instructive in identifying the limitations of the criminological project. In addition, the novel challenges assumptions relating to the relationship between law and crime in that its political and philosophi- cal themes are concerned with the play of transgression at the end of history in a totalitarian state (that totalitarianism completes history, be it fascist or communist - or in my account, liberal democratic). If society is structured through excess (of political economy and related regulatory strategies) then how is transgression within (against) society manifested?2 Criminologists continue to contest the conception of the relationship between law, crime and order in a dialogue organised around competing definitions of deviancy and regulation. Unfortunately, this contest occurs along a narrow range of discourse. The novel which I analyse (and the reasons for using a novel as the

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most