Overview: Slum Literature

As discussed previously, the Ripper murders themselves did not lead to a change in public opinion. Slums had been a part of urban life since the beginning of industrialization, and the government was well aware of their existence. However, it was the media’s sensationalism of the Ripper murders that led to more widespread public awareness of the East End and its slum conditions (1888, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Chapman#/media/File:Wanted_poster.jpg). The media’s fascination of the East End reveals a trend in late Victorian social perceptions; one in which the public gradually became interested in the “other world” of slum living.

This is largely, in part, due to new literary movements that explored these environments in a commercial manner. As more members of the public became literate, authors capitalized on an eager audience by publishing short stories as periodical serials.  Stories about the working poor were suddenly popular, and “many slum novels had consciously sensational and melodramatic modes which appealed to the “new” middle class as another disreputable [form of] amusement” (Diniejko, “Slum Fiction: An Introduction, 2011) .Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist (1838, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist#/media/File:Olivertwist_front.jpg), for example, was published as a serial for two years and followed the tragic life of a poor boy who escapes a workhouse and finds his way to London. Debate still exists whether these types of works were intended to be read as social critiques, but scholar agree that either way this publication style allowed budding authors to become very successful.

In the upcoming week, I will be researching “slum literature” in detail to investigate its effects on later urban renewal projects. I will be profiling several famous authors and their works, which were inspired by several specific neighborhoods already discussed in my research.