Literature and Justice in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain Crimes and War Crimes

by Stewart, Victoria

• ISBN13: 9780192858238
• ISBN10: 0192858238
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-04-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Victoria Stewart, Honorary Visiting Fellow, School of Arts, University of Leicester

Victoria Stewart is Honorary Visiting Fellow at the School of Arts, University of Leicester, UK. She has published widely on war writing and crime writing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Publishing and Publicising the Belsen Trial
2. Constructing Criminality in the Work of Derrick Sington
3. Memoir, Biography, and Justice
4. Holocaust Survivors and Refugees in 1940s Detective Fiction
Conclusion
Bibliography