Incognito Social Investigation in British Literature: Certainties in Degradation PDF
Preview Incognito Social Investigation in British Literature: Certainties in Degradation
Palgrave Studies in Life Writing Series Editors Clare Brant Department of English King’s College London London, United Kingdom Max Saunders Department of English King’s College London London, United Kingdom This series features books that address key concepts and subjects, with an emphasis on new and emergent approaches. It offers specialist but accessible studies of contemporary and historical topics, with a focus on connecting life writing to themes with cross-disciplinary appeal. The series aims to be the place to go to for current and fresh research for scholars and students looking for clear and original discussion of specific subjects and forms; it is also a home for experimental approaches that take creative risks with potent materials. The term ‘Life Writing’ is taken broadly so as to reflect the academic, public and global reach of life writing, and to continue its democratic tradition. The series seeks contributions that address contexts beyond traditional territories – for instance, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Italsoaimstopublishvolumesaddressingtopicsofgeneralinterest(such as food, drink, sport, gardening) with which life writing scholarship can engage in lively and original ways, as well as to further the political engagement of life writing especially in relation to human rights, migra- tion, trauma and repression, sadly also persistently topical themes. The series looks for work that challenges and extends how life writing is understoodandpractised,especiallyinaworldofrapidlychangingdigital media; that deepens and diversifies knowledge and perspectives on the subject, and which contributes to the intellectual excitement and the world relevance oflife writing. More information aboutthisseries at http://www.springer.com/series/15200 LukeSeaber Incognito Social Investigation in British Literature Certainties in Degradation LukeSeaber CentreforLanguagesandInternationalEducation(CLIE) UniversityCollegeLondon London,UnitedKingdom PalgraveStudiesinLifeWriting ISBN978-3-319-50961-7 ISBN978-3-319-50962-4(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50962-4 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017935473 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.The publisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitu- tionalaffiliations. Coverillustration:LaurentHamels/GettyImages Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book began with a two-year Marie Curie project at University College London (the People Programme [Marie Curie Actions] of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under REA Grant Agreement No 298208), and my first thanks must go to the Department of English Language andLiterature at UCL forhost- ing meandto NeilRennieforbeing myscientist-in-charge. I must also thank Ben Doyle, Eva Hodgkin, Milly Davies and all at Palgrave Macmillan who have made publishing this book such a pleasur- able experience, as well as the anonymous reader who made such useful suggestions, andEmmaCaddy forpreparingthe index. The book would have been impossible without conversations at con- ferences,pubs,theUCLEnglishDepartmentandtheUCLUPCHoffice atCLIE,aswellaswithoutthehelpIreceivedfromvariousindividuals.I need particularly to thank: Maurizio Ascari, Matthew Beaumont, Greta Borg-Corbett,StephenCadywold,JamesCross,ElizaCubitt,GregDart, Luke Davies, Anna Edwards, Lydia Fellgett, Jason Finch, David Fremlin, PietroGallina,LisHasted,NickHubble,SteveandBrendaHuettner,Les Hurst, Matthew Ingleby, Peter Jones, Richard Lance Keeble, Margaret Kettlewell,DanKilburn,PatrickLeary,PeterMarks,MichaelMcCluskey, RichardNorth,ChukwumaOkoye,StephenPorter,GeorgePotts,David Railton QC, John Redpath, Will Richards, Lisa Robertson, Michael Sayeau,ChrisStamatakis, PollyToynbee, Tom Ue, LauraVorachek. I also profited from the help and expertise of staff from the following institutions: British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Senate HouseLibrary,TheLondon Library,UCLLibrary,Universityof Michigan v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special Collections Library, Imperial War Museum Collections, London Metropolitan Archives, British Film Institute, Mass Observation Archive at theUniversityofSussex. I thank the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum for access to the Papers ofDavid Railton. MaterialfromtheMassObservationArchiveisreproducedwithpermis- sion of Curtis Brown, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass ObservationArchive. MaterialfromthearchiveoftheRoyalLiteraryFundisreproducedwith theirpermission. AversionofpartofChapterTwowaspublishedas‘TrusttheTellerand NottheTale:ReflectionsonOrwell’sHiddenRhetoricofTruthfulnessin the London Section of Down and Out in Paris and London’ in George Orwell Now!, ed. Richard Lance Keeble (New York: Peter Lang, 2015), andisreproduced withpermission. Myparentstoomadethisbookpossible,asdoesthepersontowhomI owe the most,Tiziana. This isforyou, andNoemi. C ONTENTS 1 Certaintiesin Degradation:AnIntroductiontoIncognito SocialInvestigation 1 2 Learningby ActualExperience:JamesGreenwood andthe Birthof aGenre 17 3 Downand Out:George Orwellandthe Death ofa Genre 59 4 TrampingAmbiguities:OntheRoadwithHarryA.Franck, HilaireBellocandJames Greenwood 83 5 TheDaily Grind: T. Sparrow,Olive ChristianMalvery andthe World ofWork 127 6 IfMenDoThese Kindof JournalisticFeats...: ElizabethL. BanksandWoman’s Work 169 7 TheAstonishing Thing IsThatTheyListen toUs: Modern Work fromCeliaFremlin toPollyToynbee 189 8 SettlingDown: From Jack London’sLondon Holiday toStephenReynolds’s Sea-Change 231 vii viii CONTENTS SelectBibliographyof CriticalTexts 257 Index 261 CHAPTER1 Certainties in Degradation: An Introduction to Incognito Social Investigation This book is the first full critical history of what will be referred to as ‘incognitosocialinvestigationtexts’–inotherwords,worksdetailingtheir authors’ experiences whilst pretending to be poor. There are few famous examples, the one great exception being Down and Out in Paris and London, but there has been a vast array of other books and articles in the genre since it was created in 1866 by James Greenwood’s ‘A Night in a Workhouse’. The label given here to the texts under examination is not unproble- matic, and is the first of two problems of terminology to be considered. Thephenomenonthattheseworksrecountissimpleenoughtodescribe: disguisingoneselfasamemberofapoorersocialgroupinordertogather information about it. The reasons for choosing the admittedly rather unwieldy term ‘incognito social investigation’ need some justification. ‘Slumming’, as in the title of Seth Koven’s important work on Victorian London, is also (and more accurately) employed to refer to visiting the poor or more generally spending time amongst them rather than endea- vouring to pass as one of them.1 In his work on American texts, Mark Pittengerrecognizestheproblemofnomenclaturebeforedecidingtocall its practitioners ‘down-and-outers’, ‘undercover investigators’ and ‘class passers’ rather indiscriminately.2 There are problems with all these labels. ‘Down-and-outery’istoocumbersomeaneologism;italsolimitsitselfto descriptionofonlyonesubtype–inwhatwayissomeonewhodecidesto work undercover in a factory pretending to be a ‘down-and-out’? ©TheAuthor(s)2017 1 L.Seaber,IncognitoSocialInvestigationinBritishLiterature, PalgraveStudiesinLifeWriting,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50962-4_1
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