Jack the Ripper: Media, culture, history

by Martin Willis (Editor), Alexandra Warwick (Editor)

Jack the Media, culture, history collects together some of the best academic work on the most important and sensational murder case of the nineteenth century. Leading scholars in the fields of history, media and cultural studies debate the influence of the Whitechapel Murders on race, gender, the press, fiction, film and the city of London. This is the first collection of its kind to take the Whitechapel Murders seriously as a vital ingredient in the creation of modern Britain, and the first collection of essays from diverse fields of scholarship to offer academic analysis of the representations and influence of the Whitechapel Murders on both the nineteenth century and the contemporary world.

The collection offers a range of readings of Jack the Ripper organised around the disciplinary topics of media, culture and history.

Jack the Media, Culture, History will be of interest to scholars of the Victorian period, particularly to those with interests in nineteenth century media, culture and history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Film, Politics, Journalism, Crime, Anthologies

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2007

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History offers a solid multidisciplinary collection of essays on the legendary Whitechapel murders. Whereas true-crime authors and self-proclaimed "Ripperologists" tend to focus on the 'who-dunnit' aspect of the murder mystery, the essays contained in this book are primarily concerned with the historical, social and cultural constructions of the Ripper-as-myth. As David Cunningham mentions in his essay, there is a distinction between "Jack the Ripper" on the one hand, and the Whitechapel murderer on the other. The difference is not always clear, but generally falls between fact and fiction, signifier and signified, man and myth. This collection deals exclusively with the latter dimension.

The anthology will certainly attract a broader audience, but its trajectory is unmistakably academic. It will appeal specifically to history and cultural studies students with a keen interest in matters of race, class, media and print culture, folklore, urban renewal and social reform, tourism and heritage industries, gender and sexuality, criminology, and the history of sexual deviance and paraphilia. I'm quite impressed by the breadth and depth of these essays - there's something here for everyone.

Alexandra Warwick and Martin Willis introduce the collection with a reference to Barthes, which, I think, sets the tone for the entire collection: "It is rather the many 'true-crime' books on the Whitechapel murders, despite their often-declared intention to present only 'the facts', that serve to perpetuate the myth of Jack the Ripper, and as Roland Barthes says of myth, it: 'transforms the reality of the world into an image of the world, History into Nature ... myth has the task of giving an historical intention a natural justification, and making contingency appear eternal'". This process of reification - of treating a social construct as objectively 'real' - is one of the main organizing themes of the anthology. There seems to be a shared concern for exploring the ways in which the murders combined with wider cultural anxieties to produce "Jack the Ripper" - a Victorian symbol and mythological boogeyman that quickly took on a life of its own. This is a fascinating idea, and I really enjoyed seeing the different ways that the authors approached this notion from their respective disciplines.

A quick note on the star rating. I docked the book one star, as my copy had a rather annoying misprint in which seven pages were missing (Manchester University Press, I'm looking at you). There is also quite a bit of argumentative repetition and conceptual overlap between the fourteen or so authors. Still, the book contains more than enough insights to keep the Ripper legacy fresh, exciting, and intellectually stimulating.

Standout chapters:
"Casting the Spell of Terror: The Press and the Early Whitechapel Murders" - Darren Oldridge;
"Blood and Ink: Narrating the Whitechapel Murders" - Alexandra Warwick;
"The Ripper Writing: A Cream of a Nightmare Dream" - Clive Bloom;
"The Whitechapel Murders and the Medical Gaze" - Andrew Smith;
"Living in the Slashing Grounds: Jack the Ripper, Monopoly Rent and the New Heritage" - David Cunningham;
"Narratives of Sexual Danger" - Judith Walkowitz;
"Jack the Ripper as the Threat of Outcast London" - Robert F. Haggard;
"'Who Kills Whores?' 'I do,' says Jack: Race and Gender in Victorian London" - Sander L. Gilman.

[Bill38silver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert.... if you have an IQ of average or less, like me, you will probably struggle to get through this book without feeling intellectually inadequate.

This is a collection of 14 essays previously published elsewhere but gathered together here under 3 themes: media, culture and history. As with similar collections of essays, covering different angles on the headline topic by different authors, there are some contributions that appeal more than others.

It is a saving grace that none of the essays are more than 20 pages long. Even read slowly much of the material was way beyond my understanding. What is meant by the following (one of a huge number of possible quotations that could be made to illustrate my point)... " Such reversibility and elasticity -figures of a dislocation in temporal and spatial experience that is definitive of commodity exchange-are apparent in the proliferation of images of Gothic London that satisfy a well-established tourist market"?

A ripper can mean "something that is particularly good". This book is not that for me.

[Leonardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ripperology and ripperologist have a morbid reputation that has been well-earned over 120 years after the infamous crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper took place. However, few books have gone beyond setting forth (mostly) wild theories about the identity of the murderer, and this is one of the main reasons why this very intelligent anthology of essays stands out among Ripper-literature. The representation/interpretation/(re)creation of the murders in newspapers, literature, movies, and popular culture is the main focus of the essays included in this book. No attempt is made to identify the "one true" identity of the killer (some authors even cast doubt on the identity of Jack as a single individual). Instead, the authors show us how the crimes and the way they were portrayed in the press reflected and increased the perception of Whitechapel as the dark underbelly of London, but also how doctors and prostitutes were perceived by inhabitants and outsiders of Whitechapel, and how books like The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Dracula gave shape and echoed the image of the killer as a shadowy creature of the night. However, the issues discussed go beyond the 19th century and cover how 20th century movies and novels have perpetuated the Ripper's legend, including Marie Belloc Lownder's The Lodger and its many movie adaptations, as well as post-moderns tackling of the myths (such as graphic novel milestone From Hell), and even how the fascination with "gothic London" (i.e., Whitechapel) has somehow served the advance of gentrification. This book should be an essential reading of anyone willing to delve depper into the background and implication of the Ripper's crime and myth.

[Matthew Gurteen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was wondering why I only gave this collection of essays three stars on my first read. After re-reading, though, I see why. Although all the essays in this collection are great, there is a severe lack of continuity. Most are pulled from separate books or journals, so this collection feels disjointed. Most of the authors are arguing separate points that are absent from this. 'Jack the Ripper: Media, Culture, History' is a must-read for anyone studying the subject. It certainly has its issues, however.