Fiction, war and criminology
| Author | Vincenzo Ruggiero |
| Published date | 01 November 2018 |
| Date | 01 November 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818781198 |
| Subject Matter | Thematic Section: Visions of war and terrorDebate and Dialogue |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818781198
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2018, Vol. 18(5) 604 –616
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895818781198
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Fiction, war and criminology
Vincenzo Ruggiero
Middlesex University, UK
Abstract
This article proposes an understanding of war and criminology through the use of the creative
sources offered by literature. These sources, while communicating exemplary meanings and
morals, can help describe and comprehend the social and cultural landscapes of war and crime.
Stendhal and Tolstoy are chosen as classical major providers of such sources, and an analysis of
their respective novels, The Charterhouse of Parma and War and Peace, will offer support to the
idea that the inclusion of war in criminological thinking is timely as well as necessary.
Keywords
Criminology, fiction, Stendhal, Tolstoy, war
Introduction
If it is true that literature enshrines cultural values, it is plausible to maintain that it is also
an instrument for resisting social and political decay (Boxall, 2015). Literature can
unravel oppression and indicate possibilities for action, as it can make unpredictable
things happen in contexts described as static and unchangeable. The imaginary represen-
tations offered by fiction can foreground the systemic contradictions of societies, while
art in general can covey ‘complexes of ideas which tend to generate activities towards
changes of the prevailing order’ (Malloch and Munro, 2013: 2).
The perspective adopted in this article contains elements of cultural criminology, which
is similarly engaged in unveiling the human dimensions of crime, the evidence of everyday
existence and the ‘aesthetic’ edge of deviance (Presdee, 2000). This article intends to
engage with the growing ‘popular’ criminology that shapes collective understandings of
crime, and might be seen as corrective of, or supplementary to, conventional criminologi-
cal knowledge. However, it does not limit itself to adding yet other viewpoints in relation
Corresponding author:
Vincenzo Ruggiero, Department of Criminology and Sociology, Middlesex University, The Burroughs,
London, NW4 4BT, UK.
Email: v.ruggiero@mdx.ac.uk
781198CRJ0010.1177/1748895818781198Criminology & Criminal JusticeRuggiero
research-article2018
Debate and Dialogue
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