HSY2050

Fears and fantasies: deviance in history

Mark Peel

8 points - Two lectures and one tutorial per week - First semester - Clayton and Caulfield

Objectives Students completing this subject should gain familiarity with the key theoretical and conceptual issues in the comparative historical analysis of deviance, crime and authority, while also developing awareness of the contested nature of legal, medical, governmental and political definitions of 'abnormality' and of structures of governance, administration, treatment and discipline in different past societies. Students will also gain experience in the analysis of domination and resistance in a range of texts, including records of interrogation, medical and psychological literature and legal proceedings.

Synopsis The subject will focus on different historical episodes and panics to explore and compare the conceptions of social order, discipline and criminality in different contexts. Using a range of texts, the subject will examine such topics as European and American witchcraft, 'lunacy' and 'hysteria', 'red scares', moral panics over sexual deviance, juvenile delinquency in the 1950s, and current debates about 'crime waves' and the 'underclass'. The subject will explore fear and fantasy as factors in the development of 'rational' governance and structures to manage and control different populations, interpretations of abnormality and depravity in different historical contexts, deviance as a focus for political mobilisation and protest, and the impact of debates about crime and deviance for understandings of gender, political difference, cultural and racial diversity and sexuality.

Assessment Historiographical essay (1000 words): 20% - Document analysis or group work (1000 words): 20% - Research essay (3000 words): 40% - Examination (1 hour): 20%

Recommended texts

Foucault M Discipline and punish Penguin 1980
Goode E and Ben-Yehuda N Moral panics: The social construction of deviance Blackwell, 1994
Mort F Dangerous sexualities Routledge, 1987
Roper L Oedipus and the devil Routledge 1994

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